Cynder: Enter the Dragonfly
by Wandergirl108
Summary: After the events of -my fic- TLoS: The Dragon Returns, Cynder and Spyro at last have a chance at a life together, but Cynder is still in a place and time where she doesn't belong. She leaves, hoping to find herself, and discovers a secret that could destroy everything she came back to rebuild. Basically, the epilogue of my previous fic as its own story.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: I wrote this during a difficult time of my life, in the latter half of 2015, when I myself was fighting my inner demons and searching for my identity. This story was, in part, an outlet I used to help me sort through my thoughts, hence my hesitance to post it; in the end, I decided, as always, to post it anyway, in the hopes that that one person who might enjoy it would find it. Do be forewarned, however, that this is roughly written, and very abrupt and inconsistent in places, as a result of the circumstances under which it was written.**

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Cynder was restless.

In the wake of Malefor's final defeat, the whole world was in what seemed like a permanent state of celebration. The oldest foe the world had ever known was gone forever, and the ancient dragons were going to return to the world, peace and the natural order of things were restored and an age of prosperity was ahead. All thanks to Spyro and Cynder.

 _I don't deserve this._

She didn't deserve the hero-worship nearly every single person she met showed for her. Even Spyro's personal friends, though she could tell they were trying to treat her as one of them, just felt distant to her. She didn't know any of them like they knew each other…but more than that, they didn't know her, either. No one did, though everyone praised her. Even she herself didn't really know who she was. Who she _wasn't_ was no longer up for debate - she was a dragon, not Malefor's servant - but besides that? Watching Spyro interact with his friends, she saw something she had never had, would never have. Dark thoughts haunted her at night, questions and possible answers chasing each other around in her head, until sometimes it felt like her brain was about to burst out through the pattern on her forehead, which became sore and throbbing.

Hunter and Bianca tied the knot, everyone around was finding new life and settling where they wanted to be; she should have been the same, with Spyro, but it all felt so far away. Even the soothing power of her amulet gave her little peace. Days and nights passed without her even noticing all that much, as she went through the motions and acted as she knew she was expected to without even really meaning them; she just felt so empty.

 _I'm missing something._

At last, one night, Cynder couldn't hold it in anymore, couldn't wait and suffer in silence. Once she and Spyro were home alone and settled in, she decided to talk to him.

"Spyro." She wasn't sure what else to say.

But she didn't need to. Spyro turned to her, concern in his eyes. "What is it, Cynder?" he asked.

"I…" Cynder shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think…" What was it, anyway?

The young purple dragon stood and walked over to her. "I know something's been bothering you," he told her. "I didn't want to pry, but…I was hoping you'd tell me what's wrong, by your own choice."

"I don't know what's wrong," she confessed, looking at the floor as her green eyes started to sting. "I don't…"

"Cynder." A comforting touch along the side of her neck both soothed her and made her want to cry even more. Unable to bear it, she opened her mouth and spoke the first thing that came to mind:

"I have to leave."

"What do you mean?" Spyro asked, alarmed.

"I can't live like this," she said, the words tumbling out of her mouth the moment she realized them. "I have to go…somewhere, somewhere else, anywhere else, until I know who I am. I can't find myself when everyone around me already thinks they know me and want to tell me who to be - even you, Spyro," she blurted, meeting his eyes. "You think you know who I am, you look at me like you know me and believe in me, but who _am_ I? I don't know anything about being a person! All I've ever known is fighting - fighting for Malefor, fighting _against_ Malefor, I've never done anything else! You…" Her voice cracked. "You've had a chance to grow up, to be a kid with a family and friends and mature into who you are - you've had _two_ chances, two lifetimes with normal beginnings. I haven't even had one."

Spyro said nothing for a minute, looking at her with wisdom more appropriate for the age of his soul than his current body. "I didn't know you still felt that way," he said softly. "You tried to leave once before, remember? After I freed you. You said your place was somewhere out there for you to find, that you didn't belong with us."

"I know I belong here," Cynder said. "I belong wherever you are, Spyro. But…right now, I can't be here. I have to…live, I guess. I have to live until I know who I am. I'll come back!" she assured him. "I _will_ come back, someday, I promise. But right now, I need to go."

"Right _now_?" Spyro repeated. "Cynder, can't you stay a little while and get ready? If you're going to be gone a long time, you'll need-"

"I can take care of myself," Cynder interrupted, more harshly than she meant to. She took a calming breath, then looked into Spyro's eyes and said, "I don't need any supplies or preparations, I can manage - I've been in the wild for a while before, fighting and fighting and…" She shook her head. "I just need to go. And you'll always find some reason for me to stay a bit longer, and I'll always want to agree…I need to do this now, or I might never. Please, Spyro, don't try to stop me."

For a moment, he was silent. Then he sighed and said, "Okay, I won't. I hope you find what you're looking for, Cynder."

"Me too," she said. "I…I love you."

"I love you too." They embraced each other with their wings, enjoying this one last moment of closeness, to remember and cherish during her journey. Cynder was the first to break away.

"Goodbye, Spyro," she whispered.

"Goodbye," he replied in kind.

Then she turned around, leapt through a window, spread her crimson wings, and took to the night sky, her silhouette slowly shrinking into nothingness in front of the bright white moon.


	2. Chapter 2

A majority of the world was colonized, but a lot of it wasn't. There were different continents, islands, stretches of ocean…a whole world was out there, and not all of it was under the dominion of the dragons. It wasn't the same world Cynder had been born in - it couldn't have been much different - but she trusted her Ancestors to guide her to wherever she would find what she was looking for.

Days passed. Cynder spent most of her time in flight, stopping to rest in treetops occasionally, catching fish to eat when she got hungry and her travel took her over a stretch of ocean. Catching fish to eat raw was something she'd had to learn just after she was born - survive in the wild, learn to hunt, to stalk, to fight, to kill…she'd had to be a monster, an unstoppable force, able to cross the lands and seas without stopping as she chased down whatever she was sent after - Malefor hadn't settled for anything less, and she had obeyed. Even without his dark strength forcing her into a body far older than her mind, she still remembered what he'd taught her, though she wished she didn't. The rest of the time, she was in the air, alone with her thoughts, which didn't settle no matter how fast or far she flew. If she had just let Spyro die, would Malefor have never returned? Would the dragons still have gone on as they were, her laying the eggs of some other dragon for the sake of their kind, all their power and wisdom burning bright as they sought to better the world? Would the dragonflies, for that matter, have never suffered, would they still have been whole, with hands and bodies and mouths that could speak clearly? All the destruction, everything the world had lost since she was frozen in time…would none of it had happened had she not simply accepted the course of nature? Everyone praised her for fighting off Malefor one last time and destroying him, but would that battle have even been needed, even _happened_ , were it not for her choices thousands of years ago? Was it all her fault in the first place?

The glowing yellow gem of her amulet burned against her chest when thoughts like these began to consume her, fighting to keep them just enough at bay that she wasn't overwhelmed, but there was only so much magic could do - dark or not, her thoughts and fears were valid enough that they couldn't be banished.

Then, a few days after she'd lost count of the number, she came upon a remote corner of a continent that was strangely black. What caught her eye, though, was that this was a place she actually recognized. This was the dark swamp where Spyro had found Arborick, where the water was a toxic purple ooze and all the creatures nurtured by it were venomous. Sure, it was far more overgrown than before, the trees and canopy almost impossibly thick, but the color of the leaves and the glimpses of purple fog and glow from between the trunks were unmistakable. She'd never actually been in that swamp - even Malefor had told her never to venture there, as nothing and no one he might ever seek could survive among those trees. That place was a death sentence for any mortal creature, he'd told her, there's no need to go in there - it didn't need a messenger of destruction.

 _Of all the places to endure the ages,_ she thought. But it was a place where she could hide from the world while she tried to find herself, a place where even her memories as Malefor's slave couldn't touch her. Yes, the water was poisonous, but Malefor's touch had granted her control over the very elemental force of Poison, it wouldn't harm her. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to venture in there, and stay there, sheltered from even the outside sun. A place as dark as the storm in her mind…it suited her.

So, before she even reached the border of the place, she swooped down to ground level and passed under the trees.

Instantly, cold and dark enveloped her, only the faintest glow of sunlight even reaching under the outermost trees through the mist that shrouded the gloomy grove. This was where she would find herself, she knew it before she touched down on the lush, black grass. Everything felt calm, peaceful in isolation; no beast could stand against her, and the glowing violet water flowing right next to her would obey her, so she faced no danger here. Relieved, she curled up right next to the riverbank to sleep, content with the knowledge that no one would ever disturb her.


	3. Chapter 3

When Cynder woke, the first thing she saw was, oddly enough, her wedding ring. A gold band fit snugly around the middle claw on her left forepaw, set with a brilliant amethyst…the innate purple of the stone and the purple light of the neon water mixed to produce a beautiful, almost hypnotic effect. She could almost see Spyro's eyes through the faceted jewel…and as she thought of him, one of the dark thoughts that tormented her rose to the forefront of her mind:

Did she only love him because he was the only other dragon her age she had ever known? She had married him prematurely due to the Chronicler's limited remaining life, and their connection had started the moment their eyes had met that first time they had faced off, her as the Dark Master's puppet and he as a child who didn't know who or what he was. If there had been another dragon, any other dragon, might he have been better suited for her? Was Spyro simply her _only_ choice? Staring into the gleaming gem, she pondered this. Why did she love him?

 _Because he's so kind. Because he believed in me when no one else did, when I didn't even believe in myself. Because he only ever wants to do the right thing. Because he doesn't want the incredible power he was born with any more than I want the power Malefor gave me. Because his affection was the first kindness I ever knew, the reason I even first discovered that there was something more than Malefor's way. Because he represents and embodies everything I thought I'd never have, everything I thought I could never deserve. Because I can tell him what I'm feeling and know that he'll never judge or turn from me…_

No. No, it wasn't just because he was the only dragon - no other dragon could have been better suited as a match for her, even if there had been thousands to choose from. They shared something special.

The yellow gem of her amulet flashed, and with her new confidence, the magic wiped out that demon in her head, and a piece of her identity fell into place.

With a deep breath, deeper than she thought she'd ever breathed, Cynder got to her feet. She hadn't really doubted her place with Spyro _too_ much, but knowing that discovering herself would be so cut-and-dry because of the magic of her amulet, even figuring out this one thing that hadn't been too difficult made her feel wonderful. Maybe her quest wouldn't be as difficult as she'd feared.

Now it was time to explore this place. Spyro had told her the things he'd discovered here, but it was different seeing it herself, and maybe there were other things she could find. It had certainly changed, at least - as she'd noticed from outside, the forest had grown thick over millions of years, crowded, the canopy not even letting in the tiniest ray of sunlight anywhere. Time seemed to stand still here, as if the sun's absence wasn't just a blockage of warmth and light, but of the passage of time that it signified. Cynder could have flown everywhere, but she decided not to, instead climbing knolls and jumping across mutated lily pads. When she got thirsty, she tried using her control over the element of Poison to make the water drinkable, and found that it worked; small creatures similarly toxic could be purified likewise. She didn't even need to be able to wield Fire.

Some forest wolves and walking trees tried to mess with her, but went down easily; it was refreshing to absorb gem essence from fallen monsters, a phenomenon that had died with the dragons of old but was somehow still possible in this place. Apart from that, though, all was quiet and mysterious. As she went deeper and deeper into the forest, the sense of ancient spirits whispering in the shadows all around her grew stronger - it almost felt as though all the secrets in the world that had never been discovered throughout the ages lived here. Cynder wasn't scared, but she wasn't exactly relaxed, either. More than anything else, she felt a vague, unidentifiable presence, wicked and malevolent, weighing down on her - she couldn't tell what it was or what it wanted, all she knew was that it meant her harm and enjoyed all her struggles. When she got too tired to go on, Cynder wasn't comfortable just curling up on the ground; instead, she would gather together a bunch of leaves and grass and make a pile beside the nearest cluster of twisted tree roots that gave her some semblance of shelter. She didn't know what she was hiding from, and she didn't care.

Even hidden, her sleep was restless, and with no true day or night to be seen, it was impossible to tell when she'd been sleeping long enough. The desires of her body were her only guide, so she decided to follow them, and many hours were spent in her little makeshift alcoves trying to rest. It wasn't because there were disturbing noises in the distance, it was because there was no noise at all - the silence put her on edge, waiting for a sound to happen. When one day, a noise finally did, during one of her half-asleep phases, it wasn't what she had anticipated: buzzing. Insect wings beat quickly nearby, and grew louder as whatever bug came closer. Cynder wasn't afraid of a bug, and she was tired of trying and failing to sleep deeply, so she emerged from behind her leaf pile and walked towards the sound. She didn't have to go far.

A white glow heralded the approaching company - it was big for a bug, and it shone like a tiny moon. Butterflies fluttered around here and there throughout the forest, and as she watched, Cynder realized the buzzing bug was catching them. Before long, she was close enough to hear the sounds of giggles through a full mouth, as if a child was eating from a cookie jar when they weren't supposed to. Then, Cynder got close enough to make out what it was.

It was a dragonfly.

Not one of the dragonflies of the current world, this one looked like a dragonfly from Sparx's time, upright with arms and hands and fingers and a whole head. As Cynder had already noticed, this dragonfly was pure white, which was also unlike modern dragonflies, who were all either red, blue, green, or yellow. A relic of the past…

Suddenly, the dragonfly froze, and Cynder realized she hadn't bothered trying to mask the sound of her footsteps in the wet grass. The white bug had its back to her, and turned around slowly, a look of terror on its face made comical by its bulging mouth as a bit of butterfly wing stuck out through its lips.

"Hello," Cynder said sheepishly.

The dragonfly gave a tremendous gulp, swallowing all the butterflies in its mouth. "Who are you?" she asked warily, for her voice identified her as female. "Aren't you…a dragon?"

"Er…yes," Cynder replied, confused by this question - this dragonfly knew of dragons and even had an idea of what they looked like, yet also seemed to have never actually seen one. "And you're…a dragonfly, right?"

The shimmering white bug gave a nervous nod. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Dragons aren't supposed to be here."

"That's kind of why I'm here," Cynder replied. "I needed to get away from the other dragons for a while. I didn't think I'd find a dragonfly here, either, though…"

Something about this made the white dragonfly smile, and she seemed to relax a bit. "We've been hiding," she told Cynder. "This is the only place dragons never go. If you're hiding from them too, maybe you could join us. Come on," she said, turning her back and beckoning with one hand, "follow me."

With nothing else to do, Cynder obeyed.

They took a winding path through the dark forest. Sometimes, they had to find a way around a certain place, when the gaps between trees or rocks that the dragonfly usually took weren't big enough for Cynder. Finally, they came to a place thickly encircled by trees, with no way around. Cynder didn't want to reveal her connection to the element of Shadow, but it was also the only way to get inside; she made a huge show of wriggling through a gap that was too narrow for her, but used her power to make it through, and the dragonfly was none the wiser. Then she was through the trees, and found herself in an enormous clearing…that looked nothing like the dark forest.

The canopy still blocked all sunlight, and only darkness could be seen in the gaps between trees and branches, but the clearing itself was brightly lit by all kinds of lights. Most of the light came in the form of lanterns, but a lot of it also came from the inhabitants, for the inhabitants were dragonflies of old.

It was an entire community, almost a city of dragonflies, all going about their business in an oddly typical fashion. Cynder's head twisted this way and that, trying to catch sight of everything, but it was impossible. Houses, shops, gardens, even grass patches like tiny parks covered the space, though many of the buildings were high above the ground - in addition to the wall, there was the occasional, individual tree here and there throughout the clearing, supporting buildings and presumably the canopy, so an entire suspended network of buildings crisscrossed the air.

"Welcome to our city," the white dragonfly said happily to Cynder. "We've been living here for a long time, hiding from the dragons and the curse of Sparx the Traitor, preserving our ancestry as best we can."

"Sparx the Traitor?" Cynder repeated, alarmed.

The white dragonfly frowned and nodded. "Millions of years ago, he urged our kind to bind with the weakened dragons after Cynder the Selfish left the entire species without any means of propagating." Cynder cringed, but the dragonfly didn't notice. "All because the Purple One was raised by our kind," the dragonfly went on; "Sparx was a brother to the Purple One, and he urged all of us to bind our species with magic so that all dragons would have companions as the Purple One had had him. Thus was our kind reduced to tools, unable to think or speak or act, forever doomed to protect each dragon with their lives whether they want to or not." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, you probably already know all of this…hey, where's your dragonfly?" she asked abruptly. "Don't all dragons have individual dragonfly slaves?"

"Um…most do," Cynder said awkwardly. "I never got one, myself. I was…um…I was considered too special to need one." Her brain worked quickly as she spoke, coming up with a fake story to explain her presence that she could tell so that the dragonflies wouldn't know who she really was.

The dragonfly's pink eyes narrowed slightly. "I never did ask your name," she said.

"I-I'm Kilne," Cynder replied, thinking fast. "What's your name?"

"My name's Kindel," the white dragonfly replied. She paused a moment, apparently thinking, then turned forward again and said over her shoulder, "Come on, I'll take you to meet our king. Whether you stay or not will be up to him."

Cynder followed, mind racing as she tried to iron out all the details of the fake story she would tell, no longer noticing the bustling community around her. Because of this, she didn't notice how many dragonflies stopped to stare at her and Kindel as they walked through. Kindel tried to give some smiles and waves to her friends at first, but soon gave up as she realized how awkward the situation was. Soon, everyone was staring at the red-and-black dragon in their midst. The whispers started shortly thereafter: "dragon", "dragon", "dragon"…

The amount of time it took to reach the king was a testament to just how big this clearing in the dark forest was. Somehow, the canopy still covered the sky and blocked out the sun, even in the middle of the space; Cynder glanced up at one point and realized that the tops of trees that had once grown here were still up there, though where the foliage came from was difficult to say. When at last they came to a small sort of temple - plenty big for dragonflies, but not nearly big enough for a dragon, even a young dragon - Cynder was starting to question the wisdom of even being here. Was staying here really worth the risk of lying to so many people?

Kindel flew inside, then came out a moment later with a sky-blue dragonfly significantly larger than her; Cynder realized that Kindel must be relatively young herself. Then the blue dragonfly spoke, and his voice held a lot more power than ought to come from a mouth so small:

"Only my distant ancestors ever saw your kind," he said, "but I recognize you well enough. Why have you come here, dragon? My daughter here seems to think you could be a viable addition to our haven, but I need to know why I could ever trust one such as you."

 _Daughter?_ Cynder thought, alarmed. _Kindel is a princess?_ She gave herself a mental shake, then called on the lie she'd just finished developing and tried to speak it with as much truth as she could. "My name is Kilne," she told the king and all the other dragonflies who were watching and listening. "I've run away from the Dragon Kingdoms."

"Why?"

"They…expect things of me that I can't deliver," Cynder answered timidly. "I'm apparently some sort of special dragon - I was born of an egg laid nowhere near the Year of the Dragon, and the rare such eggs that hatch always give birth to dragons of amazing ability and power. I'm the dragon everyone knows, everyone looks at, waiting for me to do something amazing or…something, I don't know what they want, they just want things from me and don't care how I feel. Everyone has always told me who to be and what to do, and I don't…I can't stand it anymore. I needed to get away from them."

"Hmm." Odd that a dragonfly could be so intimidating, and that a dragon could be so meek before him. "Are there others with you?"

"N-No sir, just me," Cynder replied. "At least I hope it's just me…I tried to leave without anyone noticing."

"And why did you decide to come _here_ , of all places?"

"Uh, it looked…um…sheltered," Cynder managed, having not thought out an answer for this question. "It just seemed like a place where I could get away from the whole rest of the world."

Despite this lame answer, the response to it told Cynder she'd said the right thing: A lot of dragonflies nodded, and whispered to each other with voices that didn't _sound_ hostile.

"You came to the right place," the king told her. "Our ancestors, too, fled here to preserve our kind, as the only place we could safely go where dragons would never venture. If indeed you are a fugitive from them as well, then, despite your flesh, I could not rightly turn you away." He seemed to consider something for a moment, then added, "But what about that ring on your claw? Is that not a wedding ring?"

"Uh…" Cynder thought fast. "I, er…it's an engagement ring. I was betrothed to another dragon, but I didn't choose him - I was supposed to marry him because no one else was worthy or something, I didn't really understand, he was just chosen for me and forced on me. That's why I only left several days ago - being controlled by everyone was always hard, but I can't marry that dragon, I don't even know him." The key to a good lie was sprinkling in as many truths and half-truths as possible.

"Dragons have never been known for respecting the will and wishes of others," the king said. "Your intent to take refuge here to escape the same tyranny we just managed to evade…no, I could not turn you away. If, of course, you prove unable to respect others as individuals with wills and minds of their own, I will have to cast you out."

"I won't," Cynder promised. "I know what it's like to be told what to do and who to be, given no choice in the matter; I would never wish that on someone else."

"Then you are a better person than most of your species," the king noted, and at last, he spread his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Welcome, Kilne, to our haven. I am Sparc, king of all free dragonflies. You've already met my daughter, Kindel." He gestured to the white dragonfly hovering to his side. "Any others here will introduce themselves to you as they see fit - you are _not_ to ask, ever, do you understand?"

"I-yes sir," Cynder replied, bowing her head respectfully.

Sparc observed her with a critical eye for a minute. Then he said, "Tell me, Kilne, how are our enslaved kin? Are they still naught but tools?"

"Oh, no, not at all!" Cynder replied, happy to at last be able to tell the whole truth to her advantage. "Dragonflies outside of here have grown a lot in recent years. They still don't have arms or hands, but they have full heads, segmented bodies, antennae, and they can even talk now! Not as clearly as you, but they can communicate."

"Really, now?" Sparc asked, his arms dropping to his sides, his eyes wide. "Is there…a reason for this?"

"I don't know…I think it might be partly because of me," Cynder answered. "The dragonflies's strength reflects the strength of the dragons, and with a dragon like me being born, the average strength of a dragon has gone up."

"Then we are indebted to you," Sparc said, surprising her. "Perhaps we will be able to free our brethren soon…"

"Free?" Cynder repeated. "How would you do that?"

This query was met with silence. At last, Sparc said, "Though I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, you've only just arrived - you haven't been here long enough for me to entrust you with our secrets, dragon Kilne. Only by being wary have we survived here, and I must still be cautious of you. If your story is true, you are welcome here, but I have to take some precautions for the event that it is not."

"I understand," Cynder said, and not a word more.

Sparc nodded. "For now, my daughter, having been the one to bring you here, will see to it that you are taken care of and instructed in our ways," he said with a note of finality. "Prove yourself trustworthy with your actions, and one day you may well be one of us, as the Purple One once was. Now, go on. Farewell."

Cynder bowed again, putting her wings into the gesture this time. "Thank you, sire," she said, hoping she was able to hide the fear in her voice. Her story _wasn't_ true, and she was taking a huge risk - she hadn't seen much evidence of warriors in this grove, but if the dragonflies had survived in this inhospitable place for so long, they had to be able to fight off monsters far bigger than them. Besides, if they hated dragons so much, but were so willing to risk letting her in, they must have had a reason to be confident enough that they could fend her off if she ever turned on them.

Sparc went back into what Cynder guessed was his palace, and Kindel fluttered over to her. "Come on, Kilne, I'll find you a place to stay," she said. "Obviously, you can't stay in one of our homes, but this grove is completely safe, so you can set up your bed anywhere. I mean, right? Do dragons need shelter…?"

"No, a place to sleep would be perfect," Cynder assured her. "Thanks." She hesitated, then asked, "Why did you want me to come in here? It seems like dragons aren't exactly welcome…"

Kindel shrugged. "You were lost," she replied. "This is the only safe place in the entire forest, and you didn't seem to want to hurt me. My father has always taught me to be kind and compassionate to all creatures that don't mean harm - it's what most distinguishes us from the dragons. Er, no offense."

"None taken," Cynder lied uneasily as they started along. "So, you're a princess, huh? Why were you outside all by yourself?"

"Oh…well, I was…sneaking a butterfly snack," Kindel replied sheepishly. "I wasn't supposed to be out. It's just that the butterflies out there are so good! Butterflies are a delicacy for dragonflies."

"Huh," Cynder said, thinking back on what she'd learned about the pact between dragons and dragonflies. "At home, dragonflies eat butterflies to regain strength they might lose while protecting their dragons. The Beast Makers' clan created all sorts of tiny fodder creatures to populate the worlds that would turn into butterflies if struck, so the dragonflies could be fed from anywhere. Recently, they even managed to combine forces with the Magic Crafters' clan to create a special kind of butterfly that allows dragonflies to stockpile failsafes for the bond between them and their dragons, allowing them to revive if both dragonfly and dragon are killed."

"Yeah, the butterfly thing came from Sparx the Traitor's discovery of how yummy the butterflies in this forest are when he came here with the Purple One," Kindel said, to Cynder's surprise. "We saw some of those fodder animals on the rare times any of us have left the forest since our haven was finished. That's interesting about the failsafes, though, that's new…Dragons sure are full of themselves."

"I always thought it was that the dragons were grateful to the dragonflies and made things to make their lives easier," Cynder said. "We didn't mean to make them so weak…"

"Well, you did," Kindel said bluntly. "Well, _you_ didn't, but your kind did. Oh, here's our pond, by the way - all our water comes from here."

Cynder blinked her thoughts away and saw that they had indeed come to a pool. The water was crystal-clear. "Wow," she said, "how did you get clean water in this place?"

"Same way we did everything," Kindel replied proudly: "A lot of work and a lot of time. We had to rely on water carriers who went far from the forest with buckets while our engineers worked on a way to create a channel that would purify the toxic water and funnel it here. It took quite a few years."

"Were you there?" Cynder asked.

"No, of course not!" Kindel laughed. "That was hundreds of thousands of years ago. I was using the word 'we' the same way you were before."

"Okay, I thought so," Cynder said, "I was just making sure." She gazed into the clear water, still amazed at its presence. "Your people have accomplished a lot, making this place."

"Uh-huh," Kindel said, her chest puffed up in pride. "It was especially difficult for creatures as small as us, but we worked hard to make this place habitable. We still have to work hard, to keep this patch hidden from above in case dragons come flying by - we have groups that pick leaves from lower branches throughout the forest and cover the treetops we left when we cut down the trees in this patch with fresh foliage. They'll probably be the ones who gather bedding for you, too - there are plenty of small, soft leaves to be found by those who know this forest."

"Wow," Cynder said softly. "That's…amazing."

"Yeah…" Kindel gave her a look. "You'll be expected to contribute, you know. Whether you're a dragonfly or not, no one lives on charity. You'll work like the rest of us."

This was supposed to be a deterrent, but Cynder lit up. "Of course!" she said gladly. "I'll be happy to work with the rest of you. Doing chores and living a normal, boring life sounds amazing."

"Are the dragons really that bad?" Kindel asked, apparently genuinely curious. "Do they not let you do anything yourself?"

"It's not quite like that," Cynder replied as they continued through the grove. "I'm just…different, is all. I can't really do any of the things other dragons do because I feel so alienated. I mean, I'll probably have a similar experience here, but at least I'll have something to actually do. There isn't much work involved in living in the Dragon Realms."

"So they're all lazy, then," Kindel said dismissively. "Figures."

"Well, no," Cynder said defensively, "they just don't need to do much. Life's pretty easy there."

But Kindel shook her head. "No no, that's no excuse," she said firmly. "If they're at leisure to live their lives and do anything they want without having to worry about defending themselves or staying hidden and aren't doing anything with it, they're lazy. It's the duty of any living thing conscious enough to be considered a person to make something of their lives - if no challenges present themselves, they need to be sought. What's the point in living, otherwise?"

"I never thought of it that way," Cynder said pensively.

"Of course not," Kindel sniffed. "You've lived with _them_ your whole life."

"Why do you hate dragons so much?" Cynder asked. "I mean, you said some stuff about the past, but why the hatred? The dragonflies _chose_ to enter the pact, didn't they?"

"They wouldn't have _needed_ to, if it hadn't been for Cynder the Selfish," Kindel said. "Some enormous war happened between dragons that nearly destroyed the world; the Purple One ended it with his power and gave his life to do so, but Cynder just couldn't go on without him, choosing instead to abandon her race, leaving the dragons with no females at all and forcing them to resort to desperate measures just to stay alive. We can't really blame them for that," she conceded, the harshness in her voice tempering slightly. "I mean, we did the same, really. But the Purple One's dragonfly brother, Sparx the Traitor, urged our kind to make ourselves part of those desperate measures."

"And this…Purple One," Cynder said, ignoring the constriction in her chest. "Do you mean…Spyro? I've heard of him…"

At this, Kindel gave a wistful sigh. "The Purple One, Spyro the Dragon, was, well, a dragon," she explained. "Supposedly a very special, powerful dragon. But he was raised by dragonflies, with a dragonfly brother and dragonfly parents. No doubt it was because of his upbringing that he was noble enough to be willing to sacrifice himself to save the world…he was the closest thing to a dragonfly that a dragon has ever been." She scowled. "But then his 'loved ones' couldn't let him go. He willingly sacrificed himself in the hope that the world and everyone in it would live, and they wouldn't let him rest in peace as he wanted - Cynder went after him out of selfishness, and Sparx urged our entire species to sacrifice ourselves for a race that we had no real ties to, despite our similar names." The white dragonfly sighed, all the fire going out of her. "Some legends say the Purple One will return someday," she said sadly. "If he ever does, I'm sure he'd be horrified to see what the people closest to him did in his absence."

With that, Cynder could not keep walking, stopping in her tracks as icy tendrils wrapped around her heart. The yellow gem of her amulet dimmed as the demons in her mind laughed at her. _You hear that, Cynder? Selfishness. You doomed two whole species out of pure selfishness. It's all your fault._

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kindel said, noticing that Cynder had stopped. "I didn't mean to suggest that your kind should have just let themselves die out after the fact - none of us could say that, really, not without saying we should have done the same. And it's not _your_ fault that Cynder the Selfish left her species to die out. Most of our anger towards the dragons in general comes from the fact that they didn't try to reverse the pact when they realized what binding our kind to them had done to us - they just kind of let it be, didn't care what they'd done. But you're different," she finished with a smile.

Cynder felt sick. "Actually I…I think I'd like to bed down here," she said. Looking around, she noticed that this was actually a genuinely good place - it was a wide corner where the tree wall was especially thick, but too flat to support dragonfly homes. "I haven't really had a chance to lie down and rest peacefully since I ran away, and I can't even remember how many days ago that was…"

"Oh, of course!" Kindel exclaimed. "I'll find a scout group for some leaves for you. They won't be able to spare much…"

"I'd be fine getting the stuff they have to replace instead," Cynder said helpfully. "It's better than napping in trees or trying to sleep in a dangerous forest without shelter."

Kindel smiled. "You're so thoughtful," she said. "You really are one of the better dragons, huh? I'll go get some leftovers for you, then. Are you hungry?"

"No, I…I'm fine," Cynder said, lying down where she stood. "I'll eat after I've slept - get something for myself, so you don't have to bother with it."

"You're so sweet," Kindel said again. "Well, good night, Kilne. A group will bring you the leftover leaves as soon as possible."

"Yeah, thanks," Cynder said, curling up. "Good night."

Kindel flew away, and the lanterns throughout the place went out, as it was apparently genuinely nighttime. Cynder wrapped herself around herself as tightly as possible, trying to shut out the monsters in her head. _Selfish. Selfish. Selfish…_


	4. Chapter 4

Cynder awoke wrapped up in wilted leaves. She must have tossed and turned during the night, because there was no way the dragonflies could have bundled her up so thoroughly. In truth, it was surprising that she'd managed to fall asleep so soon after Kindel left her - her racing thoughts should have kept her up, but apparently she'd been more tired than she thought. The lanterns were just relighting, and dragonflies were stirring all around her. Knowing that all of them lived each day with purpose made her look at them more closely, trying to pick out interactions she knew she'd have to learn.

 _My name is Kilne now,_ she reminded herself as she watched. _I've only been alive for a few years, I was born of a dud egg and had a family. Spyro is not my husband, a nameless dragon is my unwanted fiancé - I want this ring off, I may even ask for help removing it, since I know it can't be removed. I don't know much about Cynder the Selfish or Sparx the Traitor or the Purple One…except maybe for some myths I can make up that I heard from the dragons when I was a hatchling._

Then, a new demon rose up in her mind: _You're awfully good at lying to these people. Lying to take advantage of the hospitality of a community that has had to endure life in the most inhospitable place in the world because of you so that they'll help you is extremely selfish, don't you think? Would you tell any lie if it served your own interests? And would you tell it as effortlessly as the lies you've told in just the past day? You never hesitated, never second-guessed yourself, you just lied and lied and lied your tail off. You're really earning the title "Cynder the Selfish", aren't you?_

 _But I had to lie,_ she argued with herself. _I don't mean to hurt them…more than I already have, at least. I'll work to help them in any way I can - which will probably be a lot, since I'm much bigger and stronger than they are. It…it doesn't matter what happened in the past, I can't go back and change it; but they wouldn't see it that way, they'd kick me out, maybe even try to kill me, if they knew._

 _So you're looking out for yourself,_ the monster said, disgusted.

 _I'm looking out for everyone,_ she told herself. _Imagine how much trouble Kindel would get in if everyone found out that she brought Cynder the Selfish to their safe haven. I'm not doing any harm, and I'll be doing plenty of good._

 _Excuses, excuses…_

"Good morning, Kilne!"

Cynder wrestled her way out of the leaves and stood up to see Kindel fluttering over to her.

"You sure slept well," said the white dragonfly.

"I was more tired than I thought," she said in response. She looked down at the shredded leaves around her, and said, "I'll work on making an actual bed for myself…er, in my spare time, when I'm not working on…whatever it is I'll be doing to earn my keep. What will I be doing?"

"It's good to see you're so eager," Kindel said with a sincere smile. "There are a few chores that need to be constantly managed; foliage camouflage is one, but we also have food gathering and food preparation - which is extra-tricky, since there are only a few things that are edible here, some only after they've been prepared a certain way - and making sure the water stays filtered is important, too." She gave Cynder a look, then added, "You could probably do wonders for our cooking with your fire breath."

"Oh, I…" Cynder debated quickly, then decided to admit it, since it would be apparent soon anyway: "I can't use Fire."

"What?" Kindel exclaimed. "I thought _all_ dragons could use Fire!"

"All _normal_ dragons," Cynder corrected, slipping into her fake identity with almost frightening ease. "One of the things that's so special about me is that the element under my control is Wind, not Fire." She sighed heavily. "I _really_ wish I could use Fire like any other dragon," she said, "but I've tried, and I just can't do it. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize," Kindel said in an odd tone of voice. "You can't control your birth." She thought for a minute, then said, "So, your element is Wind…I'm not sure how we could use that, except maybe to help teach baby dragonflies how to fly…Maybe you should just come along with one of the groups and help keep them safe from the monsters of the forest - any group would be happy for a dragon's assistance, I'm sure."

"Alright then," Cynder said. "Are you part of a group today?"

"I am, actually," the princess replied. "Since my dad had to find out that I went off sneaking butterflies, I'm assigned to go gather them for everyone." She hesitated, then added, "Alone, actually."

"You're being sent out into the forest on your own?" Cynder asked. "Isn't that kind of harsh, especially for a princess?"

"It's only fair," Kindel said sagely, "especially as a princess. If I'm willing to risk my life to get a snack for myself, I should be even more eager to risk my life to get a snack for everyone else."

"Uh-huh," Cynder said amusedly. "And if your dad hadn't found out, would you still be going on this mission?"

"Er…" Kindel fumbled. "Well…maybe I would be," she finally managed defensively. "And even if I wasn't, no one would know, so I wouldn't be making a bad reputation for myself."

"Shouldn't the fact that you did it be more important than whether or not you got caught?" Cynder challenged. "If you hid it, wouldn't that just make it even worse, you going out to get butterflies for yourself _and_ lying to your people?"

"Well…I…Look, the only reason I got caught was because I brought you here!" Kindel snapped. "I could have just gone about my business and left you out in the forest."

"And I appreciate that," Cynder said lightly. "It just seems like you're being a bit selfish for a dragonfly, is all, considering how much you loathe selfishness."

At this, Kindel rolled her eyes. "Kilne, everyone has to do _something_ self-serving in life, it's how life goes," she said. "Sneaking a few butterflies is hardly the same as leaving my entire species to die out."

"Well, it means risking leaving this entire community without a princess," Cynder pointed out.

"It's not like I'm the _crown_ princess," Kindel sniffed. "My older brother is the one in waiting for the throne. If I was the only one, or even just the oldest, I'd be much more careful, of course I would."

"You have an older brother?" Cynder asked. "Can I meet him?"

"Only if he wants you to," Kindel replied in a warning tone.

Cynder then remembered the caveat the king had given her the previous night. "Of course," she said quickly, "I won't ask for anything I'm not offered. I just hope he decides to offer an introduction soon…I'd like to meet him."

"Well, don't hold your breath," Kindel grumbled. "Anyway, it's getting late in the morning, I should be out already. Are you going to join anyone?"

"I'll join you," Cynder replied. "I'd feel bad leaving you to go out on your own, and besides, this way I don't have to ask to be introduced to anyone without their offering it."

"Yeah, that's a good way to look at it," Kindel agreed. "Alright, let's get going."

So Kindel and Cynder left, Cynder secretly magicking her way out through the same gap as before. Immediately, they were swallowed by darkness, the welcoming light completely hidden by the tree wall. It also got noticeably colder, though Cynder hadn't noticed the relative warmth the previous night.

"Whew." Kindel hugged herself. "I always get chills when I come out here, and not from cold. Nothing foreign is welcome here."

"It's like there's this evil presence weighing down on you," Cynder agreed. "One that's watching you and wants you to leave."

The two relics of an ancient time looked at each other, and saw a bit of themselves. Maybe, against all odds, they could actually be friends.

Butterflies didn't live everywhere in the forest; only in certain groves were there flocks of the little creatures. Kindel, of course, knew where all the butterflies lived. Ironically, it would be impossible to farm them, because even though they were nutritious, they lived off the poison of the swamp, like everything else, so they wouldn't survive in the city. Kindel explained to Cynder that some of the more inventive dragonflies had been working for ages to figure out how the butterflies broke down the poison into harmless components that provided nutrition, but had been met with little success. Cynder kept quiet about her own control over the element of Poison, an element no dragon was meant to wield, though she had a feeling her use of the element would go a long way towards solving the mystery. _That's what you get for lying,_ said one of the demons in her head; she did her best to ignore it.

The dragonflies had also developed a rule of what butterflies to take from any flock so that the species didn't go extinct. Cynder tried to follow what Kindel explained, but she just couldn't see the difference between butterflies that had matured beyond breeding or were too weak to breed and butterflies that needed to be left; maybe it was just a matter of perspective, their sizes being so different - the average butterfly was nearly half as big as Kindel.

"Butterflies are even bigger back home," Cynder noted as they finished picking butterflies from one flock and left to find another. "They're nearly as big as the dragonflies."

"Really?" Kindel asked, apparently intrigued. "Wow…that'd be nice. Of course, they're products of magic, not real butterflies, so they probably don't taste as good."

"I don't know about that," Cynder mused. "I never asked Sparx what butterflies even taste like."

Kindel froze, and it took Cynder a moment to realize she'd slipped up. She thought fast as Kindel looked at her and asked with wide eyes, "Who?"

"Er, um, my, uh, my father's dragonfly was named Sparx," she stammered. "He was yellow - the dragonfly, not my father. Yellow dragonflies are rare, so…yeah. He was the dragonfly I've actually talked to the most, having not had one of my own. But I never thought to ask him about how butterflies taste."

The white dragonfly's pink eyes narrowed at Cynder, and a minute passed in tense silence. Trying not to fidget too much, Cynder kept her green eyes locked with Kindel's magenta ones, and waited. Patience. Just as Malefor taught her…

"Okay then," Kindel said the moment that thought stabbed Cynder between the eyes, turning back with her bag of butterflies to keep going. "Did you know your father's dragonfly was named after the brother of the Purple One?"

"Well, yeah," Cynder replied, again slipping easily into her lie. "Everyone knows about Sparx. My father wasn't even the first one to get a yellow dragonfly and name it that."

"So the dragons name their dragonfly slaves after they bond, then?" Kindel asked.

"I guess so," she answered, not actually knowing for sure. "It's not like I was there, or ever got one of my own…but I think that's how it works."

"Hmm."

A few minutes later, they crossed paths with a small group of dragonflies on some other sort of chore run, and here, Cynder finally got to see some of the dragonfly warriors. They were easy to tell, larger than any of the others with bands of some sort of fabric wrapped around them in all different places and sticks slightly shorter than their tail sections in their hands. Cynder wondered how sticks could possibly be an effective weapon against the monsters of the forest, but if it worked for them, she wouldn't question it.

"Oh hey, Lyte!" Kindel said merrily to the dragonfly at the head of the group, a pink one with blue eyes.

"Hi, Kindel," the dragonfly said back, cheerfully. "How are the butterflies?"

"Ripe," Kindel replied, as the group came over to join her. "Want some? We got plenty from the west flock just now, and still have more to go."

"We?" Lyte looked down, and only then did she seem to see Cynder. "Well, I'll be a dragon's bondmate," she breathed. "You really _did_ bring home a dragon. Honestly, Kindel, what were you thinking?"

"This is Kilne," Kindel informed her friend. "She seemed lost, and she didn't want to hurt me; daddy always tells me to show compassion to any creature that means no harm, so I figured I should get her out of the woods. Sure, she's a dragon, but so was the Purple One - they can't all be bad."

"The Purple One was only good because he was raised by dragonflies from birth," Lyte sniffed. "You can't trust any old dragon you come across, even if they don't try to trap you and drag you back to their kingdom - you could have brought all the dragons to our haven, and we'd be turned into slaves. Compassion does not come before the security of our freedom."

"Well, Kilne has been very good," Kindel responded. "She's my guard today - she volunteered. Also, she can barely get into our city, and she's no bigger than the Purple One was - full-grown dragons wouldn't be able to follow her even if she _was_ a scout."

"Unless they burn the whole forest down," Lyte pointed out.

"They wouldn't," Cynder couldn't help piping up. "It wouldn't be worth destroying an entire forest to capture all of you - there are plenty of dragonflies back home."

All the dragonflies turned on Cynder with indignant eyes; even Kindel looked offended.

"Sorry," Cynder said timidly. "It's just…no one outside even knows you're here. Honestly, I still don't get _how_ you're here, I thought the pact bonded your entire species to ours. I-I'm not asking how," she added quickly; "it's just, no one in the Dragon Kingdoms has any idea you exist."

"Which is as it should be," Lyte commented. She gave Cynder one last distrustful glare, then said, "I'm Lyte. I lead the third team of foliage-gatherers, the northwest is our area."

"I'm Kilne," Cynder told her in return. "I…don't really have a set role, but I'm willing to do whatever I'm needed for."

"Is that so?" Lyte said suspiciously. "Why aren't you back at the city cooking our food with your fire breath?"

Cynder sighed. "Because I don't have fire breath," she answered. "I don't have any control over the element of Fire. I was born with control over Wind. It's part of me being… _special_."

There was no response to this; Lyte seemed stunned. Luckily, they were spared any awkwardness when one of the warriors with the group shouted "Wolves!"

Immediately, all the dragonflies - including Kindel - clustered close together while the warriors surrounded the group in a defensive pattern. Moments later, the snarl of a wolf about to pounce emanated from behind a nearby tree; Cynder had learned their tell pretty quickly from the few days she'd spent in the forest on her own, and without even thinking about it, she jumped in front of the group of dragonflies and released a whirlwind from her mouth, catching the beast in midair. Unfortunately, the warriors were already halfway through their own defense method, and a couple of them got caught in the whirlwind as well. The moment she realized this, Cynder cut off the magic and let everything trapped in her wind pocket free, and soon, the dragonflies were on the wolf. Recognizing that they'd probably been doing this all their lives, Cynder forced herself to take a step back and watch, and now she saw how the little bugs fought.

Their sticks, it seemed, were some sort of means of channeling their own energy, producing energy pellets far stronger than anything the dragonflies back in the Dragon Kingdoms could produce (they could kill tiny creatures and bugs, but took a lot of effort to kill small creatures, and anything relatively large was almost untouchable). They also surrounded the beast evenly spaced in a circle, so it had no idea which way to turn first, which bought them time. While they were busy with the first wolf, though, the snarls of two more came from the other direction; all but desperate to be of some use, Cynder leapt forward and spun in a cyclone to disrupt the attacks. She needn't have bothered; the dragonflies all flew up high together in a way that would have dodged the wolves anyway, and most of the warriors on the first wolf split up and came for the other two, leaving a couple behind to finish off the first. Cynder didn't use her magic long enough to affect an ally this time, at least, and a few nonverbal exchanges with a couple of the warriors had them all focus on one of the remaining wolves while she had the other to herself. Relieved, she went to work, with claw and tail and horn and Wind, and her wolf fell at about the same time as the first one. Having learned her lesson, she stayed out of the way of the warriors fighting the last wolf, and they had it down shortly thereafter. Gems littered the ground, and Cynder ran around and absorbed them all to revitalize herself; presumably, the dragonflies usually just left the energy to dissipate into the surroundings.

"Thanks for your help, dragon," one of the warriors said to her gruffly.

"Sorry about tossing a couple of you around like that," Cynder told him sheepishly. "Will you be okay?"

"We've suffered far worse injuries," another warrior said proudly. "Don't worry about us. We put ourselves between our kind and any danger; it is our sworn duty."

Duty…What a nice word. If only she knew her own.

Or did she?

Something sparked in her mind, but she tucked it to way to review later, since the first dragonfly warrior was still talking to her. "My name is Sting," he told her. "I've been a dragonfly warrior for a few years now. I must say, having a dragon fight beside us was a tremendous help - I don't think I've ever seen a wolf attack where no one even got seriously hurt."

"I'm impressed with how well you fought," Cynder told him. "Dragonflies at home have some ability to defend themselves, but nothing nearly strong enough to even faze a wolf. What are those sticks, anyway?"

"Dragonfly spines," Sting replied, fluttering close to her and holding it out so she could get a better look at it. Up close, she could see it was actually the dried tail section of a dragonfly - probably the closest thing to a dragonfly spine there was. "By combining our strength with those who lived before us, we can achieve things no single dragonfly could ever manage."

"Wow," Cynder said, legitimately impressed. "How did you figure that one out?"

It was Lyte who spoke up. "A lot of us died during our early days here," she informed Cynder; "during one attack, in desperation, one of our ancestors took the body of a nearby fallen ally to use as a weapon in what they thought would be a vain attempt to protect themselves from a swarm of grove mites. Miraculously, it worked, and we learned to harness the phenomenon until we could defend ourselves against the monsters of the forest."

Cynder panned her gaze across all the dragonflies. "It's amazing how much you've all managed to accomplish," she told them sincerely. "I doubt anyone I've ever met, of any species, could ever imagine that such small creatures could make their way in such a hostile place; the way you've managed to thrive here despite all odds…" She shook her head. "It's incredible."

Even Lyte seemed to soften at this. "Thank you," she told Cynder. "We have worked hard. And make no mistake, a _lot_ of our kind sacrificed themselves to get us to where we are now." Her eyes hardened again. "Thanks to your kind."

Instead of protesting, Cynder bowed her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "O-On behalf of all of my kind, I'm sorry for what we forced you into. I think, if any of the dragons back home knew of all this, they would be ashamed…like I am. Your kind deserved better than us."

Kindel buzzed over and put a hand on Cynder's chin. "It's okay, Kilne," she said. "The past can't be changed, and it wasn't _your_ fault."

 _If only you knew,_ Cynder yearned to say. But she kept silent, knowing she couldn't afford to tell the truth, even as the monsters in her head mocked her. Instead, she looked up and said to Kindel, "Thank you."

"Well, we need to keep moving," Lyte said. "It was nice to see you, Kindel. We'll try to be home for dinner, okay?"

"Alright," Kindel said cheerfully. "Light speed, friends."

"Light speed," Lyte said back, and the group flitted away.

"Light speed?" Cynder asked Kindel.

"It just means 'be well on your way', basically," Kindel said with a shrug. "Come on, we still have work to do too."

"Right," Cynder said, and they continued on their own way through the forest.


	5. Chapter 5

Amazingly, there were no other monster attacks while Cynder and Kindel were out apart from grove mites, and by the time they got back to the dragonfly city, Kindel's bag was full to bursting with butterflies. Again, Cynder had to use Shadow to get in, but Kindel still suspected nothing.

"Will you join us for dinner?" Kindel asked once they were inside the oasis. "We all eat dinner together as a community, it's when we talk and catch up with friends and spend time with our families. You've helped so much with gathering butterflies, you can share our food, as long as you don't eat too much."

"Oh, no, I-I couldn't," Cynder said, though in truth she was getting a bit hungry. "I don't want to bother any of you. You have fun with your friends and family, I'm going to start putting together a real bed for myself, if that's okay."

"Sure," Kindel said with a shrug. "I'll see you in the morning, then. Good night, Kilne."

"Good night, Kindel," Cynder said, and she returned to the pile of shredded leaves from the night before as Kindel buzzed off to the pond where all the dragonflies were gathering.

Cloth wasn't available to Cynder, so she couldn't make something like home. However, anything was better than solid ground. At first, she thought maybe she could make something out of sticks and fill it with leaves, but before she even started trying to find twigs she could safely use, she decided to simply dig. Her claws made it easy, though the task made her wonder how the dragonflies had managed to dig out a whole pond - they must have crafted tools _and_ worked at it for an incredibly long time, with a lot of participants. The more she thought about everything they'd managed to do, the more the tenacity of the little bugs amazed her.

When she had a hole she could curl up in comfortably, she piled the loose dirt around the edges to give her a more secure feeling, then filled it with the pieces of leaves she'd torn up the previous night in her sleep. It wasn't much, and she definitely needed more leaves to be really comfortable, but for now, she took comfort in the illusion of privacy the hole gave her and settled down to think.

Duty. She had a duty, everyone did. What was hers? Something had started to occurred to her, but she'd set the thought aside for a more appropriate time. Yes, everyone had a duty…though, perhaps 'duty' was a strong word - a place, a purpose, was what everyone had. She knew her place was with Spyro, but aside from that? What did she want to do in life, what did she need to do?

As Malefor's slave, her duty had been to kill, to destroy. As herself, her true self, her purpose was…to create. To work against everything Malefor had made her work for. She was to become the mother of the true dragon race, bring back the days of old, but more than that, she wanted to help other people. Now that she knew what she wasn't, she hated and feared what she'd done, the person she'd been forced to be; she wasn't like that at all. She meant no harm to anyone who didn't want to harm her, she wanted to be kind and giving. Back home, everyone looked up to her, she was basically expected to be a queen, and she wanted to be worthy of that. She was to lead…and everything in her heart told her that she wanted to lead right. She _wanted_ to make the world a better place, somehow, some way, any way, _every_ way. All the mistakes of her past - both the ones she'd made under Malefor's control, and the ones she'd made after being freed - she had to work to undo in the present. She wanted to, and she needed to. It was why she'd returned.

The world wasn't better off without her. She wouldn't let it be.

With that, her amulet flashed, and another of the demons in her head was vanquished as another piece of her identity fell into place.

Some of the tension in her back muscles that she hadn't even noticed released as she exhaled deeply, and suddenly, the small pile of leaf scraps felt twice as comfortable. A few of the lingering demons seemed more distant, too…perhaps she was on the verge of overcoming still more from here. For now, she was tired, and content. She rested, more at peace with herself than ever, and listened to the distant sounds of a whole dragonfly city gathered in one place, eating and talking and laughing.

 _They sound just like the dragons,_ she mused as she listened. _They're people, too, with hopes and dreams and personalities and lives. The dragonflies at home are…companions, pets - friends, but still, they aren't their own. And…I'll end that. By bringing back the dragons of old, the dragonflies will be released to become what they used to be, too. Dragons and dragonflies alike will be saved when Spyro and I have eggs. I'm too young right now, so it doesn't matter whether I'm here or there at the moment, but…once I'm grown up, I can get these dragonflies out of here._ All _of my mistakes and trespasses can be undone, and will be. As much harm as my choice made, none of the damage is permanent, everything can be fixed in the end._

Just like that, without her even realizing she was headed that way, her amulet flashed, and another of her monsters was banished. A piece of her identity didn't fall into place this time, it was just a fear that she could now live without. Still, it felt wonderful.

Cynder dozed, drifting back and forth across the line between asleep and awake. She needed to be awake when the team of foliage-gatherers swapped out the leaves so she could get more leftovers, but feeling enclosed and alone was just so soothing…she couldn't completely escape sleep, either. Eventually, the distant voices faded, and some of the lanterns went out as the city got ready to sleep. Forcing herself to alertness, Cynder clambered out of her hole and looked around. Only Lyte, Sparc, Kindel, and Sting were people she could approach, and the pure white glow of the princess was the first light she saw, so she headed for her.

"Hey, Kindel!" she called.

The white dragonfly stopped and turned. "Oh hi, Kilne," she said, buzzing over. "Everything all right?"

"I was just wondering where I could find the old leaves they're switching out," Cynder told her. "A few more should make my little hole comfortable."

"Oh, okay," Kindel said. "Here, I'll show you where we normally toss out the old leaves. Follow me!"

"Seems like I follow you everywhere," Cynder noted as they headed for a far side of the clearing. "You're practically my dragonfly bondmate. I doubt I could ask for a better one."

Kindel froze in midair, apart from her wings, which fluttered automatically to keep her aloft.

"Er, I didn't mean-! I mean I-!" Cynder stammered. "I wouldn't, Kindel, I would never want you to be tied down and broken like that! I'm just saying you're my guide to pretty much everything around here. I'm grateful!" she finished quickly.

It took Kindel a minute to respond. "Perhaps," she slowly said at last, "we aren't bondmates so much as sisters, just as Sparx the Traitor was brother to the Purple One."

"I'd like that," Cynder said, a bit wistful. "If that's okay with you…I'll try to be worthy of your friendship."

The white dragonfly finally turned back to Cynder, and a smile crossed her little face. "You've been wonderful, for a dragon," she assured Cynder. "You're a better sibling than my brother, at least. I'm…I'm glad you're here, Kilne."

"Thank you," Cynder replied softly, deeply touched. "I'll try to keep it that way…I've only been here for a day, after all."

"You have, haven't you?" Kindel commented. "It feels like it's been a lot longer already."

"Yeah, it does," Cynder agreed. She hesitated, then decided to risk adding, "I feel like I've done a lot more living in the one day I've been here than I have the whole rest of my life."

There was no response to this, and they reached the dead leaf pile soon after. It turned out that the leaves were replaced in cycles, rather than all at once - to keep them from running out of spare leaves, Kindel explained. The pile was of several days' worth of old leaves; they tossed them out every week or so. Cynder took the lot, making several trips to carry them all back to her hole. Not all of them went in, some were used to cover the ring of loose dirt piled around, and soon she had a cozy leafy nest.

"Neat," Kindel said. "That's a pretty clever design you have there."

"You think?" Cynder asked, flattered. "It just seemed like the simplest thing to do. I was going to make something with sticks, but I didn't want to take anything you guys might be using."

"That's thoughtful, and efficient," Kindel told her, smiling. "You're not bad for a dragon, you know that? You're almost one of us already."

"That's sweet of you," Cynder said, embarrassed. "But, it's getting late." Even as she spoke, the lanterns in the grove started going out. "You should get home."

"Alright," Kindel said. "Good night, Kilne. Again."

"Good night again, Kindel," Cynder replied, and the white dragonfly flew away.

Alone again, this time in the dark, Cynder curled up contentedly. The only problem was her rumbling stomach - how was she going to get some food in this place? She couldn't take from the dragonflies, no matter what Kindel said, but she couldn't prepare her own food without revealing that she had control over Poison. _Maybe I'll ask Kindel to show me the kitchens tomorrow,_ she thought as she drifted off.


	6. Chapter 6

_"_ _Cynder?"_

 _Cynder looked around. She seemed to be engulfed in a thick fog; she couldn't even see the ground under her feet. "Who's there?" she called._

 _"_ _Cynder!" Out of the mist came a purple dragon she knew well._

 _"_ _Spyro!" she exclaimed, and she ran over to him and wrapped her wings around him._

 _"_ _Cynder," he breathed, embracing her in return. "I wasn't sure this would work…I thought I'd never find you."_

 _"_ _What is this?" Cynder asked, pulling back to meet his eyes._

 _"_ _It's an advanced old magic Thomas found in an ancient book he dug up," Spyro replied. "It's called dream walking. Of course, no dragon has been able to cast it since the old days-"_

 _"_ _-and blah blah blah," Cynder finished for him, chuckling. "Haha, I'm glad the book lasted." She sighed, just looking into his eyes. "I've missed you," she admitted._

 _"_ _I've missed you too," he told her. "I've been so worried about you…are you okay?"_

 _"_ _I'm fine," she assured him. "I've found the perfect place to work things out."_

 _"_ _I don't suppose you'll tell me where you are?" he asked._

 _She shook her head. "No, Spyro, I won't."_

 _He nodded. "I didn't think so," he said. "I still had to ask, though. Are you…at least finding whatever you went looking for?"_

 _"_ _Yes," she told him, glad to be able to tell him at least one thing he wanted to hear. "I've gotten a ways in sorting things out." She gestured to her necklace. "My amulet's power makes everything pretty cut-and-dry, actually - the moment I figure something out, the magic makes it set so I won't worry about it anymore."_

 _"_ _I'm so glad to hear it," he told her, his heart in his eyes. "Any idea when you'll be coming home?"_

 _"_ _Not really," she replied. "At this rate, it might be soon…but it might not. I really can't say."_

 _"_ _Hmm." He looked at her for a minute. Finally, he said, "Tell me one thing about where you are, what you've been up to."_

 _"_ _Okay." She waited, but he didn't elaborate. "Well?"_

 _He shrugged. "Anything," he said. "Any one thing. Just so I can feel like I know a bit better."_

 _"_ _Oh, okay. Um…" She thought for a minute, then chuckled. "I made a friend," she told him."_

 _"_ _Really?" he exclaimed. "Wow, that's…that's great, Cynder. Is it a dragon, or…?"_

 _"_ _Not a dragon," she replied. "I won't tell you any more than that. You said only one thing!"_

 _"_ _I did, I did," he conceded. He sighed. "I really miss you, Cynder," he said. "I love you."_

 _"_ _I love you too," she told him, and they embraced again. "And I miss you too. I just…really,_ really _need to figure this out on my own."_

 _"_ _And that's okay," he reassured her. "I'll be here for you when you come home. You do what you need to." They stayed in their embrace for another minute. Then Spyro asked, "Will it be okay with you if I visit you in your dreams again sometimes?"_

 _"_ _Sometimes," she said. "Not every night, though, okay? You need to sleep too, and…well, I need to do this on my own."_

 _"_ _Alright," Spyro said. He pulled back to look her in the eye. "I just really wish I could help you…"_

 _"_ _I know you do," she told him. "And that helps a lot, really it does. It means so much to me that you care…to know that I still have a home waiting for me when I'm done. That alone is worth the world to me. So, you do help."_

 _"_ _But I should be able to do more!" Spyro cried; it was clear he was letting out something that had been building up for a while. "I should be able to make everything okay, the fact that I can't do it just makes me feel like I've failed you! I mean…" He waved his forepaw, brandishing the silver ring set with a ruby he wore. "…you're my wife!"_

 _Cynder gave her beloved a pitying smile. "Spyro, we're both too young to really even understand what that means," she said._

 _"_ _It means that no matter what life throws at us, we're in it together," Spyro asserted. "It means neither of us ever has to be alone, no matter what. It means our lives are one, anything that concerns one of us concerns the other."_

 _"_ _That's sweet, but we're still too young for that," Cynder told him. "Everyone needs to figure things out on their own sometimes. This is something I need to do by myself. It's not your fault, and it's not your responsibility. Okay?"_

 _"_ _Alright," he said, though he didn't sound convinced. "But I'm going to do this once a week just so I know you're safe, okay?"_

 _"_ _That's good," she told him. "It'll help me, too. I_ have _missed you, Spyro. You're my husband…and not just because you're the only dragon of old left. I love you…_ so _much."_

 _"_ _I love you too." He looked around; the smoke seemed to be clearing, but he was going with it. "I'm running out of power to keep this spell going…"_

 _"_ _Go," Cynder told him. "Get some sleep, you need it too. I'll see you in a week."_

 _"_ _Alright. Good night, Cynder."_

 _"_ _Good night, Spyro."_


	7. Chapter 7

When Cynder woke the next morning, she felt refreshed. There was no doubt in her mind that her dream had been real - Spyro was a powerful dragon, and there was no telling what kinds of magic had been formulated in the old days. The lanterns were just lighting as she jumped out of her nest, and she suddenly noticed that no one was actually lighting them, they were simply coming on on their own. She went to find Kindel, who was already buzzing around the gap where they usually got in and out of the city.

"Good morning, Kindel," Cynder said cheerfully.

"Good morning, Kilne," Kindel replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"Beautifully. Hey, how do those lanterns work?" Cynder asked. "They light and go out on their own."

"Oh, that." Kindel puffed up her chest. "We can't see the sun, but apparently there are some kinds of radiation from it that get through the leaves; we managed to make lanterns that light in the presence of whatever bit of sun can get in here, so we always know exactly when it's daytime or nighttime."

"How did you do that?" Cynder asked, surprised. "That's…well, magic, right?"

Kindel gave her an odd look. "Maybe," she said cryptically. "You're still new here, Kilne."

"Right," Cynder said, nodding. "Dragonfly secrets. Got it."

"Don't worry, you'll learn them someday," Kindel promised her, smiling now. "You just have to be here a while, so everyone knows they can trust you. Our people have had to be suspicious to survive here."

"I get it," Cynder reassured the white dragonfly. "It's fine, really. However you did it, I'm impressed."

"Thanks."

"So what are we doing today?" Cynder asked her friend. "You aren't going butterfly-gathering again, are you?"

"Oh, no, we won't need to do that for a while," Kindel replied. "I'm going to be joining a team to go get other food today. You're going to join me again?"

"Who else would I go with, sister?" Cynder teased.

Kindel laughed, and they met up with a group and left the city.

No one in their group was someone Cynder knew, and she had promised not to ask for anyone's names. Like Lyte, they were wary of her, and Cynder came to understand just how lucky she was to have run into Kindel of all dragonflies - any of the others probably would have run for the warriors and tried to kill her. The monsters in her head taunted her, reminding her that she was lying to them and taking advantage of them, that she was _the_ dragon they would want to kill if they knew who she was, the reason they were even here and living like this. Her dragonfly sister was her biggest help in fending off the demons - she always made time to say something to Cynder or try to include her in conversations indirectly, though she talked to her fellow dragonflies plenty, which Cynder couldn't fault her for.

The biggest problem was finding a way to eat something without revealing her control over Poison. She wanted to eat something she could catch on her own, instead of forcing the dragonflies to share with her, but by the time they had berries and a few dead bog rats, it was clear that that wouldn't be possible. On the other hand, she was able to kill slightly bigger things than what the dragonflies could practically take, and carry the bigger things as well; an entire mound of grove mites and swamp mites was piled high on her back before too long. Somehow, the dragonfly warriors were able to kill the bugs in ways that didn't cause them to disintegrate, so their bodies could be cooked and eaten - it wasn't cannibalism, they were very different species of bugs, and none of the dragonflies seemed bothered by the insectile carcasses.

Because of the nature of their scavenging, they had to return to the city well before dinner, and as Cynder had hoped, their next stop was the kitchens. She used her control over Wind to get her load through the gap, and many of the dragonflies seemed impressed - one even introduced themselves to her, a green one named Glimm. Once they were all back inside safely with their food, the dragonflies headed for a certain corner of the city, and Cynder followed. It was a testament to just how big this city was that they came to a place she hadn't glimpsed before - here, all sorts of kitchenware were laid out in the open, with no walls or floors or ceilings. Central to this space was a field of cauldrons, with many dragonflies hovering around the edges, holding lines of twine hanging from their hands into the pots.

All the foods had to be boiled, Kindel explained to Cynder - if boiled for long enough, the poison would eventually separate from the rest of the components of a plant or animal. Grove mites were the best things to boil, since their exoskeletons didn't degrade in the hot water, and the poison easily leeched out of them - they were also the most dangerous to hunt for food, but Cynder's help had gotten them a lot more than was normally possible to gather. As Kindel led Cynder through the boiling processes, explaining which pots boiled what, how to tell when something was done, and figuring out how she could help when she couldn't exactly hover over the edges of the cauldrons, other groups of scavengers came home and added their findings to the pile of untreated food. None of them, Cynder noticed, brought nearly as much as what she'd managed to get, and some of them were visibly injured from tussling with the venomous bugs. At one point, she asked Kindel what they did for injuries, and she pointed in a general direction and explained that there was a medical branch of the city; sure enough, every injured dragonfly eventually went that way, but only, Cynder noticed, after they'd finished making sure everything was accounted for and ready to boil.

In the end, Cynder was given the task of water carrier - boiling water meant it constantly evaporated, and clean water had to be continuously brought to the pots so they could be used without interruption. As a dragon, she could carry a lot more water at once, and with this job, she could use her wings to position herself over the pots without danger of tipping anything, as long as she flapped gently. Once or twice, a pot's water built up too much poison leeched from foods to be useful, so it had to be dumped out; this, too, Cynder took care of, and the dragonflies slowly came to accept, then appreciate, her contributions. By dinnertime, a lot of dragonflies were introducing themselves to Cynder, and she actively conversed with entire groups. Ironically, she felt like she fit in here more than she ever had in the Dragon Realms, and by dinnertime, she had no qualms about sharing food with the dragonflies.

She hadn't gotten to see what the dragonflies did with the food after the poison was leeched out, so she was surprised by stews, roasts, berry juice, and an impressive variation of what the dragonflies liked to call "mite munches" - all sorts of ways of preparing the grove mites, usually with the exoskeleton still attached, though the occasional plate of pure mite meat was here and there. The food was laid out in a buffet style, with dragonflies of all ages taking what they wanted as they pleased.

Here, Cynder got her first look at the baby dragonflies. Dragonflies in the Dragon Realms were trained at a special dojo to fly and prepare to be dragon companions; she wasn't at all familiar with the methods the dragon senseis used, but very young dragonflies here couldn't fly either, and between courses, she made controlled little puffs of wind to catch their tiny wings - it was more entertaining than educational for the little bugs, but parents were quickly won over by how good Cynder was with their young. By the time dinner was over, none of the kids wanted to go home, begging their parents to let them stay with "Kin" just a few more minutes. Laughing, Cynder summoned wind currents to carry all the kids back to their parents. It wasn't until she was alone again that she realized just how incredibly at home she felt here.

"You're really good with kids," Kindel commented to her, adding to the feeling. "Shame about your fiancé being forced on you - you'd make a great mother."

"You think?" Cynder asked, her head slightly pulled back with embarrassment. "I…don't know much about children." _I never was one. Ever._ "But that's nice of you to say."

"Uh-huh." Kindel gave Cynder an odd, almost sly look, and the happiness bubbling in Cynder's chest calmed down. Something wasn't right here…

It was late, and the sisters parted ways, Cynder curling up in her leaf nest. She was exhausted - fighting had never taken it out of her like socializing did. That was probably because it was so foreign to her…but it made her uneasy how quickly she'd adapted to her new name, her new identity. At the root of it all, she was still essentially living a lie, no matter how happy it made her or how right it felt. And - she realized with a jolt - how would she ever leave the dragonflies without explaining who she really was? She would have no reason to want to go back to the Dragon Realms, based on her story…the dragonflies had taken a huge risk in trusting her, and if she just vanished, they'd be scared, and angry.

 _Well, I don't intend to leave anytime soon,_ she thought sleepily, her fatigue outweighing her anxiety. _I'll work on it._


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, Cynder asked to see how the rest of the kitchens operated, and Kindel showed her, explaining to her the steps through several of the processes. It wasn't as complicated as she'd imagined - with the poison leeched out, the food could essentially be prepared the same as any other food one might boil. Some detoxified leaves were hung out to dry, to grind up into flour, explaining even the presence of the flat, bitter breads that were never served on their own. Still, the work required a lot of precision, and Cynder was just too big to help.

On the following day, she went out with some of the foliage-gatherers - the group Lyte headed. They showed her how they picked out which leaves could be taken without damage to the tree or ecosystem; she tried to keep up, but much like with the butterflies, some things were just indiscernible to her. Lyte had warmed up to her, and joked about how inconvenient it must be to be a big, bad dragon.

After that, Cynder decided that, though she was a good warrior, she was best served working in the initial boiling of food to get the poison out - it was the only job where she had never been at a disadvantage. Soon, she fell into a routine, getting up every morning to light the cauldrons and fetch the water - the dragonflies showed her how to light a fire without dragon magic, so her inability to use the Fire element was a nonissue. Some of the dragonflies were impressed and even surprised at her enthusiasm - most of them had to drag themselves to their jobs every day, but Cynder was always the first one up and moving. She liked working, making herself useful, and more importantly, earning her keep. Working like this almost made her feel better about how she was using and lying to the community that had taken her in. Besides that, though, it was just nice to have a routine, a daily purpose. Also, any time a dragonfly went out alone to collect butterflies, Cynder left her post to protect them, and before too many months had passed, the dragonflies had an overabundance of butterflies in their stock. Sparc eventually spoke to Cynder at one dinner solely to thank her for how much she'd helped with their survival - they had never been more prosperous, he told her.

One thing Cynder had to wait on, however, was the honor of meeting the crown prince, Kindel's older brother. He never came to meals - or, if he did, she never noticed - and she was of course forbidden to ask after him, even after she'd become an integral part of the city. The only thing she could be sure of was that the elusive youth _did_ exist, somewhere.

Every seven nights, Spyro visited Cynder in her dreams, never missing a single meeting, never late. For Cynder, while it was nice to know that he worried about her, that he still cared, she eventually started asking him not to push himself so hard to see her so much - the magic he was using was very powerful, and had a cost, she knew, despite his protests. These pleas, he ignored. He didn't press Cynder to tell him anything about where she was or what she was doing, though, instead respecting her privacy, which she appreciated. After a while, she started to fear that the way she was getting so comfortable in the dragonfly city might make her husband feel more distant, less real, less important; this fear proved groundless, as she was always happy to see him, to talk to him, to spend time with him somehow. That first thing she'd become certain of when she'd first woken up by the purple river really was true.

As far as that went, very rarely did a piece of her identity fall so distinctly into place - most of the time, it was a matter of slowly figuring something out. She was a worker, enjoying labor in a way few people ever did; a friend, a mother-to-be, always happy to talk and laugh with others, though she did also enjoy the solitude in her nest at night; over time, she found confidence in herself, no longer timid or shy in any situation; and yes, she came to terms with the fact that she was an excellent liar, very skilled at saying the right things in the right way. Some doubts, however, didn't fade, most prominently the question of whether her choice millions of years ago had been devastating and nothing else, whether or not there were any positives to her decision, and over time, she started to get the feeling that the answer to that wouldn't be found here.

Dragonfly secrets remained hidden from her so long as not every single dragonfly knew and trusted her - as long as Kindel's brother held out, she couldn't be told the secrets dragonflies kept from the dragons. He _was_ the last one to open up to her - in a few months, every single other dragonfly in the city knew Cynder and had introduced themselves. Kindel never spoke of the prince, and neither did Sparc the few times Cynder spoke to him; he definitely existed, but he was still essentially a myth to Cynder.

A day eventually came when Kindel went out to gather butterflies alone, and Cynder went with her.

"Kin," the black dragon said to the white dragonfly at last, using a shorthand version of her sister's name that she'd gotten used to, "why haven't I met your brother? I know I'm not supposed to ask, but…"

Kindel sighed. "He's not a very friendly person," she informed Cynder. "Most dragonflies haven't even seen him. He spends all his time in his room, reading books…and other things." The pause before that last bit was something Cynder by now distinctly recognized as a dragonfly avoiding saying something she wasn't supposed to know. "He does know you're here, but I don't think he cares," Kindel went on.

"Does he ever come out?" Cynder couldn't help pressing. "For anything?"

"Sometimes," Kindel replied with a shrug. "Not if he can help it, though."

Something about this bothered Cynder, but she couldn't quite place it. Unsure how to ask what she was wondering, she instead said, "Well, I guess I can only wait on him."

"Yeah."

They proceeded through the dark wood in silence, until a _thud_ announced the approach of a walking tree. Kindel hid behind Cynder and grabbed her longest horns as they both turned in unison to figure out where the danger was coming from; when it was located, Kindel hung back while Cynder charged. Simple walking trees were no match for even a dragon younger than Cynder, and it was no contest. Even though she much preferred home, the act of battle never left her instincts - it was something her muscle memory never forgot, and probably never would. Besides, using Wind at its full force was exhilarating.

As the gems were sucked into Cynder's body, Kindel fluttered over. "Nice going, as always," commented the white dragonfly. "Before you came along, our best defense from those things was to run, even with warriors."

"I'm not surprised," Cynder said, turning to her dragonfly sister. "They're big, and tough."

"Mm-hmm." Again, Kindel gave Cynder an odd look, one that the dragon had caught her making several times during her stay.

"What?" she finally asked.

"Oh, nothing," Kindel said airily, buzzing back along the path.

"No, it's something," Cynder said, trotting after her. "I've seen you give me that look before - several times, actually. Is there, I don't know, something you want to ask me?"

Kindel stopped, hovering in the air. Then, she slowly turned around, until her fuchsia eyes met Cynder's deep green ones. "Well, there is one thing," she admitted.

"Well?"

There was a pause. "I'll ask you another time," Kindel replied at last. "Right now, we have butterflies to reap."

"Right," Cynder sighed, and they carried on.

Dinner that night was delicious, and Cynder spent most of her time with the kids, as always. It was another night, and each night was practically a festival by dragon standards, one Cynder never tired of. Towards the end of the night, though, an unfamiliar color caught Cynder's eye. It was the color she always thought of as the color linked to the element of Fear, which she had tenuous control over - a sort of maroon, darker and richer than even the membranes of her wings had ever been, somehow glowing. By the Ancestors, how she hated that color. The moment she noticed it, she stood frozen, staring at it, much to the disappointment of a little dragonfly she'd been playing with.

"Hey, Miss Killlln!" he squeaked. "Hey!"

Cynder gave the little thing a quick, apologetic smile. "Sorry, Ivywing," she told him. "I have to…go do something."

"Aww," the child whined, but his mother came and relieved Cynder of him.

Free, Cynder swept her eyes across the dwindling crowd, searching for that loathsome hue. She found it, and started making her way towards it, without really even thinking about what she was doing - the color alone made her scales itch, her hackles rise. Every instinct in her brain told her to pursue whatever might be that particular shade of red. She was mere steps away before she even registered that what she was approaching was a large dragonfly.

No sooner did she realize this than the dragonfly in question turned its eyes on her - eyes that were a deep, bottomless black. Cynder shivered at the sight of the bug, eyes the color of Shadow and a body the color of Fear. A nasty smile crossed the dragonfly's face as they stared off, and it buzzed its way over to her.  
"Well, well, Kilne the Dragon," he said. His voice was beautiful, musical, but echoed of the coldest of hearts. "So we meet. My sister has told me of your presence here."

"Er…" Cynder didn't know this dragonfly, so there was nothing she could say that wouldn't somehow break the terms of her residence here.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the dragonfly said after a moment, as though also realizing this; "my name is Sley. A pleasure to meet you, dragon."

"Sley," Cynder repeated. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Kilne…as you know."

"It would be hard not to," he commented; "you were the talk of the town when you showed up. I was wondering when I'd get to meet you myself."

Offended but too smart to show it, Cynder resisted pointing out that he could have found her and introduced himself to her any time he'd wanted, and that he knew full well that she wasn't allowed to go looking for him. Instead, she said, "You're the crown prince, right? Kin told me about you; I've wanted to meet you too. I hear you're…quite the academic."

"Oh, you mean my studies?" he said. "Yes…it is good to know things, isn't it? I lose track of the days between the pages."

"Yeah…" Cynder said slowly. "Anyway, you're the next in line for the throne, right?"

"Oh yes," he said, still in an evil voice. "That's why I study so hard - when my father dies, I must be able to lead my people. It's my calling."

Cynder nodded, unsure what else she might say. Nothing about him was pleasant, and she wasn't sure she even wanted to keep talking to him.

"Say, dragon," he said, hovering closer to her, "I've read a lot about your kind in my books…histories, spells, abilities, achievements. You're special for a dragon, I'm told. Perhaps I could share my knowledge with you. It would certainly be a proper reward for all the work you've done for us here."

"Oh, you know about that?" Cynder asked, trying to keep her tone one of lighthearted surprise.

"Our city is prospering beyond any other time in our history; of course I know about that," Sley replied, his voice getting deeper and softer…and slimier. "My sister's happening upon you was quite miraculous; we owe you a great deal, dragon. As crown prince, I could happily repay you."

Starting to get genuinely creeped out, Cynder took a step back. "Er, maybe another time," she said nervously. "It-It's getting late."

"Huh," he said with only the tiniest hint of surprise lacing his many-layered voice as he looked around and saw some of the lanterns going out. "So it is. Another time, then?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Cynder replied, afraid to turn him down.

"I look forward to it," he said with a nasty smile, and then he buzzed off in the direction of the palace. Cynder watched him go uncomfortably, still shaken by his color.

"He's something else, isn't he?"

Cynder jumped and turned around to see Kindel hovering over to her, her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"He's…yeah," Cynder replied. "I…I think I kind of get why you didn't want to talk about him."

Kindel laughed, the sound so familiar and pleasant, soothing after listening to Sley's noxious voice. Relieved, Cynder allowed herself a giggle too.

"Is he always like that?" she finally asked her dragonfly sister.

"Always," she confirmed, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes, he's worse. Dad _loves_ it, says he's _the most clever and well-spoken dragonfly to ever grace our kingdom_." She said this last in a mocking voice that told Cynder she'd heard it many more times than she would have liked. They headed over to Cynder's nest as they talked. "I'm not so sure about that, myself - if I had to guess, I'd say my brother's reign probably won't be a very pleasant one."

"Well, maybe it won't be so bad," Cynder said, trying to be optimistic. "In any case, I know all the dragonflies now - can I start learning things?"

"What do you want to know?" Kindel asked.

"Well," Cynder said slowly, "I'd like to start with the simplest thing…how do your lanterns work?"

Kindel nodded. "I'll tell dad you asked, and that it's time," she promised Cynder. "You'll start learning everything tomorrow."

"With or without Sley?" Cynder asked, only half-joking.

"Hopefully without," Kindel grumbled. "I'll be with you either way, so it shouldn't be too much of a nightmare even if he does come."

Cynder gave a nervous chuckle and hopped into her nest to curl up. "Well, good night, Kin," she said.

"Goodnight," the white dragonfly replied. She didn't leave, though; instead, she hovered beside the nest, a thoughtful look on her face.

"…Is everything all right?" Cynder finally asked.

"Kilne…tell me something," Kindel said, "and tell me the truth: Are you Cynder?"

"W-What?!" Cynder exclaimed, jumping to her feet. Thinking fast, she opened her mouth and let her brain talk for her: "How could I be? She died millions of years ago, right?"

"That's what some myths say," Kindel said in an odd voice - kind of sly, like the looks she'd been giving Cynder. "Remember how I told you some myths say that the Purple One will one day return? A lot of those also say that, instead of choosing death, Cynder had the dragon Ancestors freeze her in time until the Purple One returned, so they could be together in life."

"Can the Ancestors even do that?" Cynder asked, still trying to stay calm. "Even if they could, that sounds kind of extreme…everything I was ever taught about our Ancestors was that they try to maintain the balance of nature - freezing someone in time feels like it would go against that, even more than Cynder did."

"Oh, come on," Kindel said. "The legends say that Cynder was a black-scaled dragon with red skin and silver horns; she was born in the center of the Dark Master's domain, forced into an adult body the moment she hatched, and the Dark Master placed a collar around her neck to hold her in place, and metal shackles around her arms and tail, marking her as his slave forever."

Despite her best efforts, Cynder couldn't avoid looking down at the metal bands that encircled her forelegs, as well as her neck above her amulet - one was clasped around her tail as well. They were more jewelry than bindings, and she'd willingly donned them as a means of facing her fear of being Malefor's monster again; she didn't really even think of them anymore. But there they were.

A moment passed in awkward silence. Then, Cynder looked up at her dragonfly sister and said, "Look, Kindel…if you _are_ right, and I am her, don't you think I'd be too ashamed to admit it? Cynder the Selfish did terrible things…whether she meant to or not. I'd much rather be Kilne. Wouldn't you?"

"Hmm." Kindel made a gesture to Cynder's left forepaw. "Your fiancé. It's him, isn't it? The Purple One. Spyro."

Thinking fast, Cynder glanced around once, afraid that she was being baited; when she was confident no one else was looking, she gave Kindel a single, wordless nod.

"So it's really happening," Kindel breathed, her magenta eyes wide. "Our exile, our enslaved kin, the age of weak half-dragons…it's all about to end."

"That's…one way of looking at it," Cynder said nervously.

"It's how I've _always_ looked at it," Kindel said wryly.

Cynder blinked. "How long have you known?"

"Well, I _hoped_ as soon as I saw the pattern on your forehead," Kindel replied, pointing to Cynder's head. "It's like a fingerprint, almost." She buzzed closer, lowering her voice. "I'm so glad you came back. Now we don't have to go to war, and we don't have to stay here, we can just ride out the rest of this in peace."

"War?!" Cynder exclaimed. She caught herself, forcing her voice down, then whispered, "What do you mean, war? You aren't…planning to attack the dragons, are you?"

Kindel glanced around, then informed her, "That's one of our secrets - you'd be learning this tomorrow anyway. War plans have been in the works since we got here; we've always known it would be a huge endeavor, and a huge risk - and it would be tricky, finding ways to hurt the dragons without the dragonflies taking the blows - but we thought it was the only way to free our kind. Now that you're here, there's no need for that."

"I'm not going to _tell_ anyone I'm…you know," Cynder said, still too nervous to even say her own name. "Can you imagine how they'd react? Think of what they'd do to _you_ , for bringing me here!"

"I'm the daughter of the king," Kindel sniffed. "Not even my dad would dare do anything to me. And I could protect you - I could point out that your existence means our plight is about to end, _without_ war. Even if they don't like it, they have to acknowledge that hurting you would be counterproductive, since you and the Purple One are both back, and here to restore the dragons of old - and, by extension, the dragonflies of old."

"Look, keep it secret until I say it's okay," Cynder hissed. "I'm…I'm here for my own reasons, and I want things to stay the way they are for now…I _need_ things to stay the way they are."

"Why _did_ you leave, anyway?" Kindel asked. "You didn't really leave the Purple One at the altar, did you?"

"He and I are already married, actually," Cynder replied in a low voice, still fearful of someone else hearing, "and I told you why I left. I'm…a legend, among dragons, a figure, revered and feared and distant. I don't belong. Until I came here, all I've ever done is fight and fight, I've had no childhood, no family, no time to grow up and figure out who I am - and none of the dragons out there would give me the peace to do that now. So I left, to find myself. And…" For some reason, her voice cracked. "I've found myself here. I've never been so happy before, never felt like I belonged like I do with all of you. I'm just another person here - a different person, but I have chores and a routine and I'm treated as normally as possible. I have friends here, _real_ friends…and I have a sister. I don't want it to end. I'm not ready for it to end."

The white dragonfly gave her dragon sister a long, ponderous look. "Is that why you couldn't let the Purple One go? Because he was the closest thing you had to a real companion?"

"He _was_ a real companion," Cynder told Kindel firmly. " _Is_. I don't just love him because he's the only dragon of my age and era - even if there had been a thousand other choices, no one could have made me feel like he does. But…at a certain point, that's not enough. He understood, when I told him I had to go." She chuckled faintly. "Of course he did. No one else could have, but he did."

"And he's waiting for you?"

"Uh-huh," Cynder replied. "Actually, he…he visits me in my dreams once a week. Just to make sure I'm okay. He can do that, apparently, being a purple dragon of old."

"Wow." And Kindel smiled. "You're lucky to have such a good guy."

"I am, aren't I?" Cynder laughed weakly. "Oh, he doesn't know where I am, or that I've found any of you - I told him not to ask me, and he let it go, just as long as he knows I'm safe. So your secret is still being kept, no other dragons know about this place."

"Okay, that's good to know," Kindel said, with a surprising amount of relief. "That'll make the reveal go over a lot better."

"But not now!" Cynder insisted. "Please, give it…I don't know, a few days, maybe? I'm not ready to be…her. Not yet."

"Alright, sister," Kindel said, holding up her hands, "I'll keep your secret, same as you've kept ours. Butterflies tomorrow, before we discuss dragonfly secrets?"

"Do we need any?" Cynder asked, blinking.

"No," Kindel replied, "but I want to continue this conversation."

"Fair enough," Cynder conceded, lying back down. "Good night, sister."

"Good night… _Kilne_."


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, where were we?"

They were barely out of the city before Kindel blurted out the question - she'd obviously been holding it in impatiently all night and morning.

"Uh…I don't know," Cynder replied. "What more do you want to know?"

"I want to know _everything_ ," Kindel gushed. "Like, what can you _really_ do? Legends say Cynder had unusual powers for a dragon…"

"Yeah," Cynder sighed, "Malefor - er, the Dark Master - infected me the moment I hatched, so I was exposed to…and bonded with…forbidden elements right away. Wind is the element that I…well, it's the element I was supposed to be born with, the one in my dragon blood. But Malefor gave me control over three forbidden elements: Poison, Fear, and Shadow." She hesitated a moment, then added, "Shadow is how I get through that gap in the trees, it's way too small for me. And Poison is how I survived here before I found you - I can keep the food and water pure when I eat or drink it."

"Wow," Kindel breathed. "You could probably work with our engineers to combine your magic with our technology and find a more efficient way of purifying everything."

"That actually occurred to me when I got here," Cynder admitted, glad to be able to finally say it. "But, obviously, I couldn't tell you."

"Yeah, I get it," Kindel said. "Alright, my turn - I promised daddy I'd give you an overview of things if I went out with you today. We actually…stole some magic from the dragons, around the time the pact between dragons and dragonflies was formed - that's how we protected ourselves. We can't use it for the most part, but, for example, our lanterns run on the magic. It's in the palace…it looks a lot like your necklace, actually," Kindel added, gesturing to Cynder's amulet. "A huge lump of golden crystal - we've chipped off tiny, tiny pieces for the lanterns, that's what powers them. We don't really understand much about how it works, and it took every single one of the dragonflies who hid from the pact to carry it here - it took weeks - but it's kept us safe…from the dragon magic, at least."

"Wow," Cynder said, "I…wasn't expecting that. Yellow isn't really the color of any type of energy gem that dragons can absorb…I didn't know they even existed before the current age of dragons started collecting gems as a tribute to their heritage. Though, I guess, I should have known, since the Chronicler made this for me." She touched a paw to her amulet.

"So you really were frozen on the White Isle?" Kindel asked. "All this time?"

"All this time," Cynder confirmed. "It was a long wait…the Ancestors forgot to make me unconscious for the whole thing, so I spent millions of years with nothing but my own thoughts to keep me company. It made me…well, think a lot," she said lamely. "And I guess I deserved it…I swear, I had no idea that there were no other female dragons left when the Ancestors froze me - I didn't even find out until Spyro came back and freed me. I'm sorry." Cynder stopped, forcing Kindel to turn around so their pink and green eyes could meet. "I'm so sorry," she told the white dragonfly sincerely. "If I had known…"

"You would have chosen it anyway," Kindel said gently. "You were in love. Still are. It happens."

"Yeah…" Cynder turned her gaze downward, staring at the greenish-black grass. "I guess. But still…I'm sorry for how things happened. I didn't mean for it to go that way."

"Hey, I believe you," Kindel reassured her. "You've been so giving the whole time you've been here. I believe you aren't selfish."

"You do?" Cynder asked, surprised, looking up again. "I don't."

"If your relationship with the Purple One - er, Spyro - is as deep as you say it is, no one can call you selfish for not being willing to give him up," Kindel told her sagely. "Love makes people do weird things. Even our city has famous tales of lovers doing foolish things when led by their heart."

"Have… _you_ ever been in love?" Cynder asked curiously, realizing she'd never wondered this before.

"Nah," Kindel replied with a laugh, "I've only heard and read stories. But hey, I'm still a kid."

"Well, I am too," Cynder pointed out. "But, I guess…my situation was…unusual." Her eyelids drooped. "Like everything else about my life."

"Hey, don't get down," Kindel said brightly, putting a tiny hand under Cynder's chin. "It means you know who you belong with without having to wonder and work your way through all kinds of people and get all depressed about never being able to find anyone. That's part of a 'normal' life, too, I've heard."

Cynder laughed. "Thanks," she said, and they continued on. After a minute, she asked, "Can I see this yellow crystal of yours? I promise not to smash it or anything."

"It's under the palace," Kindel replied. "It's two, maybe three times your size, there was no other way to keep it safe than to bury it. Since you can't even get inside…"

"Right."

They reached a butterfly herd, and Cynder stood guard while Kindel filled her bag. Strangely, nothing attacked, not even a grove mite. Without conversation, Cynder watched Kindel and couldn't help thinking of Sley. When all the butterflies that could safely be culled were stowed away, Cynder had to ask.

"About your brother…was he born that color?"

"That color?" Kindel repeated. "Well…oddly enough, no, actually." A shiver ran down Cynder's spine. "He was a much brighter red - or at least, that's what daddy says. He's been this color for as long as _I_ can remember. It's probably because he doesn't get much fresh air," she added with a humorous smile.

But Cynder wasn't reassured. Her eyes narrowed, focusing on the grass.

"Why?" Kindel asked. "What's so special about his color?"

Cynder sighed. "Kindel, do you…know about how the different elements each have colors associated with them?" she asked. "Wind is silver, Ice is blue, Lightning is yellow, Earth is green…?"

"Um…come to think of it, I may have heard that," Kindel replied. "Why?"

"Well…the forbidden elements I can control have colors, too," Cynder replied carefully. "Shadow is black, and Poison is like a sickly, yellow-green. And Fear…Fear is the very same color as your brother."

"Really?" Kindel gasped. "Wow. That's-"

"Scary," Cynder said firmly. "I've never seen that color anywhere else, ever." She shuddered, this time not trying to hide it. "I hate that color. It's so… _wrong_. And his eyes are the color of Shadow, too."

"Well," Kindel said slowly, "it's not like we choose what color we're born with."

"Yeah, neither do dragons," Cynder grumbled. "And yet they still mean something."

"Ours never have," Kindel pointed out.

The black dragon shook her head. "I just feel like there's something off about your brother," she told Kindel. "Not just the way he talks, but…something else. Something…I don't know, worse."

"Maybe you just need to get used to him," Kindel suggested. "He _is_ weird, that's no secret. But that doesn't mean he's…whatever you think he might be."

"I hope you're right," was all Cynder could say in reply.

The rest of the sisters' outing was spent discussing the modern dragons - though Cynder knew very little, she told Kindel everything she could, and the white dragonfly was fascinated. She also told Kindel the story of Malefor's final return, and this got an interesting response from the dragonfly: "Well, then I guess it's a good thing you made the choice you did - if he was that powerful even in death, he would have come back one way or another, and what you did ensured he only came back when you and Spyro did as well." They discussed this, and by the time they got back to the city, a lot of Cynder's remaining demons had been banished by her amulet; a few things still lingered, but for the most part, her heart and mind were clear, for the very first time.

And it was a good thing, too, because when they returned, Sley was waiting for them.

"Ahh, my dear sister, and Dragon Kilne," he said smoothly. "Did you enjoy your walk?"

"Yes, Sley," Kindel said, rolling her eyes, "and we got tons of butterflies, too. Want some?"

"You know full well I have no interest in the delicacies of our enslaved brethren, whether they're the only food that's edible raw in this place or not," Sley replied, an edge creeping into his voice.

"They're just butterflies!" Kindel said, exasperated - clearly, this was an argument they had often. "They're food, okay?"

"I don't need your treats," Sley sniffed. "Bog rats and berry juice are my sustenance, as you're perfectly well aware. I would never eat a bug." He shook his head. "Disgusting."

Though his manner (and color) still bothered Cynder, his words couldn't help catching her attention. "I thought the same thing," she thought aloud. "How you're bugs and don't mind eating bugs, I mean."

A slow, wicked smile crossed Sley's face. "You're an observant one, aren't you?" he crooned, buzzing over to her. He got very uncomfortably close; then, he reached out a hand, and stroked one of her horns, almost lovingly. "It's very refreshing to finally meet someone who actually thinks about things instead of just doing. Why don't you spend the rest of the day with me? I could provide much more intelligent conversation than the rest of my kin, and you must be starved for intellectual exchanges, as bright as you are."

"Uhhh…" Cynder stammered. "That's, er, very flattering…"

"And I can tell you the secrets of your kind, as I mentioned last night," he went on. "I doubt any of the dragons have the knowledge of your kind that I do. You chose exile because you felt so separate from them, I'm told; I have the answers you never learned out there."

This presented Cynder with a very tight predicament: If she said no, she'd risk blowing her cover, and if she said yes, well, she would have to spend time with Sley. A strange twinkle in his black eyes almost made it seem like he _knew_ that was the situation he was putting her in, which didn't help matters. But of course, he _couldn't_ know…

"I, uh…" _A few hours with him won't kill me. Probably._ "Sure," Cynder said at last. "I _would_ like to know…er, things. Kin, you'll be fine without me, right?" She turned to her dragonfly sister, whose pink eyes were circular with shock; trying to communicate with her own eyes, Cynder begged Kindel to let it go, to forgive her.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Kindel said at last, much to Cynder's relief. "I'll see you at dinner!"

"See you at dinner," Cynder replied, and her best friend flew away.

Sley was testing the sharpness of one of Cynder's horns. "Dragon horns never wear down or dull, I've read," he murmured, half to himself, "and yours are sharper than needles. No wonder you're such a good warrior - you're built to fight."

He couldn't possibly have known it, but the words bit into Cynder's heart, some old, vanquished demons reemerging from the aether. _Built to fight. As much as you may love a peaceful life, you were built to fight._

"It's such a shame you're stuck working in our kitchens so much," Sley went on. "You're clearly a huntress, a soldier. How _do_ you manage to get through most of the days without sinking your claws and horns into your enemies, without slashing at foes with the blade of your tail? You must be bored to tears."

"I…I like doing chores," Cynder said, not as assertively as she wanted to, the demons tearing at her confidence. "I don't think it's boring at all. I hate fighting."

For some reason, Sley chuckled…it really was as if he _knew_. "Is that so, young dragon?" he asked, almost tauntingly. "For one who hates fighting, you're quite good at it from what I hear…and from the look of your build, I'd say the tales are hardly exaggerated." His voice lowered. "I'm sure my sister told you of our intention to go to war with the Dragon Kingdoms, and free our kin," he murmured. "You might be the very thing we need to make it happen."

"What?!" Cynder exclaimed, taking a quick step away from him. "I wouldn't do that!"

"I thought the dragons abused you," Sley said, unfazed. "You could get revenge on them, for thinking they could tell you what to do, who to be. You were forced to flee here, the most inhospitable place in the world by far, just to escape their tyranny, their judgment - why not fight for your freedom? We certainly seek to. You could get rid of your fiancé and-"

"Stop it!" Cynder cried. "I…they…" She fumbled, trying to slip back into her identity as Kilne. "They didn't mean to make me miserable…it's not like they hurt or oppressed me on purpose! Even if they'd wanted to treat me like a normal dragon, they couldn't have - I'm just too different! I'm happy here, Sley, just being part of a community, earning my place. Please, stop talking about war. Yes, Kindel told me about it, but I really hope it doesn't come to that."

"But why wouldn't it?" he countered. "It's not as if the dragons of old are going to return and relieve our enslaved race from the need for the binding compact…" But even as he said this, his black eyes narrowed at her in a way that made his words sound almost sarcastic.

Cynder's eyes, too, narrowed. "You _know_ ," she said. "You _do_ know, don't you?"

"Know what?" he asked lightly. "Know that every single thing you've said since you met my sister has been a lie, and that you're actually Cynder the Selfish herself, using my people for your own hidden agenda? Now how could I possibly know a thing like that?"

"The same way Kindel did," Cynder said softly. "My jewelry, my color, my forehead…"

"Oh yes," Sley smirked, "there is that, I suppose." Then he blinked. "Wait…my sister _knows_?" he exclaimed. "Why on earth hasn't she told anyone?"

"Because she's my friend," Cynder replied, an edge creeping into her voice. "She didn't question my story because she chose to trust me. As far as she's concerned, just the fact that I'm free from the White Isle means the end of your exile here - and she's right."

"Perhaps," Sley purred. "But it's really up to you in what way she'll be right."

"Look, I'm not going to fight the dragons," Cynder snapped. She looked at him. "Why haven't _you_ told on me, anyway? It's not like you don't hate me."

"I _don't_ hate you," he told her, his attempt to speak in a pleasant tone just making him sound even more malevolent. "I think you're special, and fascinating; I'd hate to see anything happen to you. You've fought long and hard for a chance to have a life, haven't you?" He hovered over to her again, a pitying look on his face. "Your own kind has only ever pushed you, one way or the other. The Dark Master wanted to use you for his own agenda, the dragons tried to tell you that you were meant for _their_ agenda…no one ever asked you how you felt."

"Spyro did," Cynder told him. "A couple of times, during our final days together, he asked if I was okay."

"And would he have followed up with different actions if you'd said no?" Sley countered. "For that matter… _did_ you say no?"

"Well, I…" Cynder hesitated. "Yes," she admitted, "but he…"

"He what?" Sley pressed. "Told you it would be all right? Told you to follow his lead?"

"Y…Yes," Cynder answered, the word working its way out of her throat against her will. "Yes, he always told me to follow him, stay close to him…"

"And not once did he suggest you do things your way?" Sley continued. "Not once did he ask for your opinion?"

"I…" Cynder felt her throat closing on her; she could hardly breathe. Sley's wicked eyes had her frozen. The worst part was, she wasn't unused to this feeling.

"Why not join us?" Sley asked. "We've never told you what to do - we've told you what _not_ to do, sure, but only as a precaution. You said it yourself, you like it here. The only time you've ever been happy is when you've been living among us."

"I never said that!" Cynder burst out.

"Oh, no?" Sley asked. "And is that because it's not true, or because you're just afraid to admit it?"

Strange, dark things were swirling around within Cynder. All those demons she'd come here to banish…without the dragons pressuring her, would they have ever tormented her? Maybe the dragons all deserved to suffer…to be slaves, like the dragonflies were, like she had been…None of them had any idea what it had been like to be Malefor's puppet, they all just looked up to her like it was simple, like she'd had no thought or will of her own at the time - and that wasn't true. It had been the only way she'd known, but she hadn't hated it. The power the Dark Master gave her to do his bidding had been beyond anything any dragon could imagine - she hadn't just been a soldier, she had led his forces across the land, answered only to him. _My master returns…_

 _No!_ Desperately, Cynder closed her eyes and shook her head violently, as if to physically throw the poisonous thoughts out of her mind. She wasn't like that. Malefor had _used_ her! Spyro had freed her, believed in her despite everything she'd done - he was her heart, her home, she wasn't going to turn from him.

But Sley was still talking. "Sometimes our true nature is best discovered by paying attention to where our mind wanders when we don't direct it," he purred. "And your true nature, o dragoness of the shadows, is beyond anything you could ever imagine. You don't know the power you wield - you were never trained, never raised by a dragon family. You don't even know why you're so small, do you?" He smirked nastily. "I know everything about the dragons of old, everything there is to know. I could teach you to harness your powers, show you how to be a true dragon."

"I don't…I don't need to know," she choked.

"Oh come now, why are you so against me?" Sley asked, almost sounding hurt. "I'm only trying to help you."

"No," Cynder growled, "you're trying to control me. I know what it feels like when someone wants me to follow them without question - that was the whole start of my life. You're just like Malefor."

Sley recoiled, his expression suggesting that he really was genuinely offended by this. "The Dark Master sought only to destroy!" he exclaimed, his tone smooth and calm no longer. "I want to _build_ , dragon! I want to get out of this dark pit and bring us all into the light - into a world without slavery or submission, where all can be free! And you can join me, or get cut down like everything else that stands in the way of a free world!"

"And how will you do that without me?" Cynder countered, gaining ground in the argument. "You don't have the power to conquer the world, that's why you're trying to manipulate me!"

At this, however, Sley calmed down again, another wicked chuckle emanating from his throat. "Manipulate," he repeated softly. "You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you? But whatever's been going on in your mind during this conversation, _I_ certainly didn't suggest any of it. Did I?"

Just like that, Cynder was brought down again. No, actually, he hadn't - her dark thoughts had been completely unrelated to anything he'd said. As soon as she admitted that to herself, her mind returned to when she and Spyro had first faced Malefor - how Malefor had said she'd planned and orchestrated the whole thing, his resurrection by Spyro's presence, _deliberately_ …and how she hadn't been able to deny it with confidence. Were her memories really true? _Could_ they be, if it was so easy to make her doubt them? Sure, Malefor had done it intentionally, even taken his words back in the moments before he died, but here was a dragonfly millions of years later, saying unrelated things that made her mind go in these awful directions…it was so easy to make her doubt. _Too_ easy. Maybe she really was…

"I think this conversation is done," Sley told her smugly. "Come now, it's almost dinnertime, and I haven't told you any of the things I promised to."

 _I don't want to hear anything else you have to say,_ was what Cynder meant to say when she opened her mouth. What came out, however, was "Like what?"

"Like how dragon growth works," Sley replied. "As I said, you don't even know why you're so small - or, for that matter, how being filled with the Dark Master's power forced you into an adult body."

"I thought it was just…like an age thing," Cynder said, confused.

The maroon dragonfly's smile was absolutely predatory. "Not quite…" he purred as they headed for the town square.

Cynder ended up spending all of dinnertime talking to Sley. He didn't mention who she was in public, and the conversation stuck to the simple topics of dragon biology. The maroon dragonfly explained that a dragon's coming of age didn't happen at a certain time in their lives, or even a range of time - it was an instantaneous growth, from whelpling to adult, and it happened upon a certain, distinctive event in a dragon's life. What that even was was never the same for any two dragons, but, for instance, Malefor's maturation had come when he was exiled from the Dragon Kingdoms and chose to pursue destruction - apparently, that was quite an epic tale in one of Sley's books, how the dragon Guardians condemned him and watched him grow to adulthood right before their very eyes in response, as he made his ultimate choice. And it was almost always a choice, Sley explained to Cynder, that determined a dragon's maturation.

Apart from that, various means of controlling one's element, even positions she didn't know her muscles could twist in, and all sorts of things dragon parents usually taught their hatchlings, were freely passed from Sley to Cynder. Odd, how leaving the Dragon Realms had led her to be able to learn exactly what it meant to be a dragon. Still, she was uneasy about learning everything from Sley, afraid that he may have been withholding certain facts in an attempt to manipulate her, though she didn't really have a choice in trusting him.

At long last, when everyone went to bed for the night, Kindel was able to get Cynder alone, much to Cynder's relief.

"How are you doing?" Kindel asked, worried.

"I'm fine," Cynder said, if not with total confidence. "Your brother…taught me a lot of things, about dragons, that I'm glad to know now - it'll make a lot of things even easier to do."

"Yeah," Kindel said suspiciously, "and what else did he tell you?"

Cynder sighed, then shifted closer to her dragonfly sister and lowered her voice. "He wants me to lead the dragonfly war against the dragons. He knows who I am, but he still wants to try to convince me…" She shook her head. "I won't listen to him, don't worry." But she found she wasn't as sure of that as she wanted to be.

Kindel noticed, too. "Don't listen to him," she told Cynder firmly. "He's a slimy one - he spends most of his time studying, so I don't know him that well, but I've never known him to not get what he wanted from someone with words alone."

"He's very well-spoken," Cynder agreed. "Very…convincing. It's like he knows exactly what to say." As something occurred to her, the gem of her amulet glowed. "But I do too," she realized out loud. "He and I…have similar skills. Maybe I can talk my way around him, the way he talks around most people."

"Good luck with that," Kindel said sincerely. "I'd love to see my high and mighty brother brought down, in any way, by anything."

"I'll try," Cynder chuckled. "Anyway, it's late, and tomorrow's another day. Good night, sister."

"Good night…Cynder."


	10. Chapter 10

That night, Cynder had a nightmare.

It didn't start out like a nightmare. It started with her returning to the Dragon Kingdoms, a dragonfly perched on her horns. _Happiness filled her heart, her mind was clear of all monsters, and the wind was cool under her wings. She was going home, at last ending her journey to take her place where she belonged. At first, she thought it was Kindel who rode with her, but when she landed, it was Sley who buzzed into the air._

 _"_ _You know what to do," he said to her, his eyes gleaming with evil._

 _Some part of her knew she wasn't supposed to listen, but most of her found his words exciting. "I do," she agreed eagerly. "This will be the beginning and the end."_

 _They hurried along the shore together. When at last they reached buildings, Cynder dug deep down and summoned the element of Fear, unleashing it in a terrible storm._

 _Buildings toppled, dragons screamed, and Cynder roared. Poison came forth next, drowning the entire town; dragons melted, gasping their final breaths. Sley was holding something that flashed yellow, and suddenly, dragonflies emerged from the fading muck - they were modern dragonflies as they rose, but then they changed, morphing into dragonflies of old._

 _"_ _You are free, my brethren!" Sley declared. "Behold, your true forms, free of the dragons!"_

 _The dragonflies seemed shocked at first, but as they examined their new, full bodies, their hands and fingers, they smiled, forgetting the loss of their bondmates._

 _"_ _Onward!" Sley cried, and Cynder took to the skies, all the dragonflies behind her, Sley catching on to one of her horns and riding with her._

 _From there, the dream skipped, as dreams sometimes do to gloss over the boring bits, flashes of memories of events all that were left: Dragon cities crumbled, dragons died in droves, and the enslaved dragonflies were restored, dozens at a time. Cynder took delight in all the destruction, laughing at the dragons who fell before her, who had once looked at her like they knew her, like they could tell her who she was. Some of them even saw her, and died with confusion in their eyes - priceless memories she would cherish for the rest of her life._

 _"_ _Cynder! Stop!"_

 _At last, the voice she'd been waiting to hear. She turned, her eyes narrowed in spite at the purple dragon who flew towards her._

 _"_ _Look who finally decided to talk to me!" she taunted. "Come at me, hero!"_

 _"_ _Cynder, what are you doing?!" Spyro cried, his broken heart shining through his amethyst eyes. "Why?!"_

 _A dream memory popped up: after a while, he'd stopped visiting her in her dreams - just up and stopped one day, with no explanation. "I found my true family!" Cynder snarled. "You would have used me, just like Malefor!_ No one _uses me and gets away with it! Now die!"_

 _She threw herself through the air like an arrow, slamming into Spyro and tackling him to the ground. Mercilessly, she swung claws and tail, using Shadow and Poison and Fear to beat him down. Unable to just take it, he tried to resist; then, he closed his eyes in sorrow, and started to fight back. By then, though, it was too late - he didn't have enough strength left to fight her, especially not with her mastery of the forbidden elements. Finally, he fell to the ground, defeated._

 _Savoring her victory, Cynder stalked over to him. "You fool," she hissed. "You were always alone, just like Malefor said. I followed you out of fear and shame - now, both have left me, and I know who I am. And I am_ not _your wife."_

 _He gave her one last, desperate, devastated look. She smirked, and slowly lifted a claw and put it on his neck. Applying pressure, she turned her claws at just the right angle, and in one, swift motion, cut out his throat._

 _As his blood poured onto the dirt, splattering her face, power welled up inside her, a sensation she'd felt once before, the moment she'd hatched - all at once, she grew into a full-sized dragon, the very same one who had served Malefor long ago. This time, though, she served no one. All the dragons were dead - they had been dead already, it was no great loss. Spyro's lifeless corpse looked so small at her feet, and she reared her head back and roared in triumph._

 _Even over the sound of her jubilation, Sley's maniacal laughter filled her ears…_

Cynder screamed, leaping out of her nest.

It was dark; the dragonflies' lanterns were still all out, it was the middle of the night. However, a lot of them were up, surrounding her.

"What's wrong?" Kindel asked, buzzing through the crowd. "What is it, Kilne?"

Gasping for breath, Cynder tried to force herself to full awakeness. "It was…nothing," she panted. "Just…a nightmare…that's all…I'm sorry I woke you." She looked around at all the dragonflies still looking at her with concern. "I'm sorry I woke you," she repeated. "I'm fine, really. Please, go back to sleep, you need your rest."

Slowly, the crowd dissipated, and the dragonflies returned to their homes. Kindel, however, stayed.

"What happened, Cynder?" she asked now that they were alone.

"I told you, I just had a nightmare," Cynder replied, trying to dismiss it. "I'll be fine."

The response was not one she'd expected: "Was my brother in it?"

Emerald eyes blinked in surprise. "Yes, actually," Cynder replied.

Kindel shook her head. "I knew I shouldn't have left you alone with him for so long," she grumbled. "He can really mess with a person's head. Whatever your dream was about, ignore it - he's a creep."

"I…thanks," Cynder said, deciding not to tell her sister exactly what her dream had been of. She was still sorting it out, and she curled back up in her nest slowly.

"Will you be okay?" Kindel asked, hovering over to her. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

In spite of herself, Cynder laughed. "No thanks, I'm okay," she assured the white dragonfly. "You get back to bed. Sleep isn't something that can really be spared around here."

"True…" Kindel gave Cynder one last, concerned look, then went home.

Alone again, Cynder settled down; try as she might, she couldn't banish her nightmare from her mind. In it, she had felt happy, joyful, elated, but reviewing it, she noticed something she hadn't while actually in it: somehow, in the dream, she knew that Sley had orchestrated the whole thing.

It hadn't just been a nightmare. It was Sley's dream. And somehow, that seemed like the opposite of a coincidence.


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning, instead of either young member of the royal family, it was actually Sparc himself who met Cynder as the day broke.

"Good morning, dragon Kilne," he said formally.

"Good morning, your highness," Cynder replied cheerfully. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"On the contrary, there's something _I_ need to do for _you_ ," Sparc informed her. "I know my son and my daughter have been telling you some of our secrets sporadically, but it's past time you knew the whole story. You've been a wonderful addition to our community, Kilne, and it is my honor to declare you a dragonfly in all but body."

Sley and Kindel buzzed over while the king gave this little speech, and both hovered by their father's side, Sley to his right, Kindel to his left. The king spread his arms and declared, "Dragon Kilne, we honor you with our story. It all began when the half-dragons were created, and Sparx, former brother to the Purple One, finally returned to his own kind with the news-"

"I thought Sparx never got to go home," Cynder blurted.

Sparc gave her an odd look, then said, "Well, he did, when all the dragons' great undertakings and decisions had been made and they began trying to rebuild. He returned to the grove where he'd been born, and reunited with his parents at last…"

~o~

"Mommy! Daddy!" Sparx cried as he flitted through his old home. "Where are you?"

"Sparx?" came a familiar male voice, and Sparx's father appeared, his wife by his side. "Is that you, son?"

"Dad!" Sparx dove into his father's arms, and his mother joined the hug.

"Oh, we've been so worried about you, honey!" she exclaimed. "So many things have happened since you left…"

"Yeah, I know," Sparx said, "I was there. Heh…I was right next to the guy at the center of it all."

His parents exchanged looks. Then his dad said, "Sparx…where's Spyro?"

Sparx took a long breath, and told his story.

Some would have expected Sparx to embellish his role in the events that had transpired, but out of respect for just how serious the whole affair had been, and still mourning the loss of his brother, he told only the facts, describing everything that had happened in accurate detail. It was a very long story, and by the time he was done, most of the dragonflies in that particular community had joined and were listening to the tale. So it was that the dragonflies finally learned of the dragons as a species. After questions about events had been answered and clarified, and a bit of discussion had passed, Sparx continued speaking.

"So listen," he told everyone, "the dragons are pretty weak now, they can't really take care of themselves. Even we're stronger than them - like, I was never a warrior in any battle, but I was able to take a few hits and recover; they can't even do that anymore. So I was wondering…hoping…if maybe we could…help them out, a bit more. Y'know, for Spyro."

"How would we do that?" asked an elder dragonfly named Silverwing.

All attention was on the yellow dragonfly. "Well…Spyro and I were closer than brothers - we stuck together, helped each other out…I may not have done much, but he still wouldn't have gotten as far as he did without me. And like I said, even we're tougher than what the dragons have turned into now. So, I was thinking we could…join forces, maybe? Move over there with them, and work together on stuff? They could really use our help."

This was discussed, though not to any real extent, and then dragonfly messengers went to other dragonfly communities and told the story of Spyro and Sparx; dragonfly messengers from those communities went to others that they knew of, and soon, the entire dragonfly species was aware of the dragons and their tenuous, distant tie. Elders from all communities came together and discussed the matter with each other and Sparx, breaking up meetings only to tell the common people what had been said and to get the common opinion on things. It came out at some point during these proceedings that Sparx's plan was for the two species to bind together magically, combining their strength. For a while, the dragonflies were divided, almost evenly. Then, at one meeting, Sparx gave a passionate plea.

"Look, Spyro was one of us!" he cried. "He grew up with us, he was my brother, he was family! He gave his life for the whole world, everyone in it, including us, and his girlfriend chose to wait for his return instead of sticking around, leaving the rest of the dragons even more feeble than lice! They can't fight for themselves to survive, and they're still trying to rebuild…and…if they don't survive, Spyro can't come back, ever." He looked around. "Please," he begged, "for my brother. He can still get to live a full life, but only if the dragons don't die out, which they probably will if we don't help them. They need us! Heck, they've always needed us - we raised their savior, their, I don't know, god! Dragons and dragonflies - even our names say we should stick together! Come on, let's do our part, no one else can or will. It's up to us to keep the dragons alive."

His speech was deeply moving, and after that, consensus started to lean towards the proposed joining of races. Shortly thereafter, the dragonflies all got together as an entire species, making sure not a single dragonfly was left out, and flew all together to the Dragon Realms, Sparx leading the migration. Dragons and dragonflies met at last, and several days were spent together, getting to know each other, choosing bondmates, and just mingling and interacting between the two species that were to become one. It was during this time that Sparx showed the dragonflies the remains of the great work of magic the Chronicler had cast to make the weak half-dragons: an enormous lump of yellow crystal, residue of powerful dragon magic. He told stories of how Spyro and Cynder had been able to increase their capacity for strength using similar crystal lumps, ones that had been red or green.

At last, the remaining dragons of old all got together to work the binding magical contract between dragons and dragonflies. It was not a quick or simple spell, and all the dragons and dragonflies stood in attendance, most dragonflies beside their chosen bondmates. When at last the magic was unleashed, it didn't happen all at once - instead, it spread across the land, slowly. The dragonflies nearest the casting were affected first, transformed into sticks with wings and eyes in an instant. As more dragonflies turned, panic started to spread, and some of the dragonflies - mostly those who hadn't chosen bondmates - tried to flee the spell. Sparx was the first to run, and he, through some insight, headed straight for the yellow crystal, and hung onto it with all his might. Fleeing dragonflies who copied his decision soon plastered the shining lump, and as the spell washed past the spot where it stood, gaining speed every moment, all those clinging to it were spared; any other dragonflies were turned, unable to outrun it as it covered the globe. When the magic finally settled, and the dragonflies hanging onto the crystal knew they were safe, they let go, trying to find family and friends among the transformed bugs. Cries of names filled the air. Th ose who managed to find their loved ones tried to speak with them, but when the altered dragonflies opened their mouths, all they could manage was a droning sound - they couldn't speak, couldn't communicate, though their minds and souls still had intelligence and strength. Being trapped in such useless bodies, many dragonflies wailed in despair, the buzzing sound filling the sky in a song of pain and loss.

"What have you done?!" one of the remaining dragonflies snarled at Sparx.

"I didn't know this would happen!" Sparx cried. "I had no idea, I swear!"

"Then how come you were the first to run?" the same dragonfly demanded, the other survivors gathering behind him to show him their support.

"I saw a bad thing happen and I ran," Sparx replied. "I didn't know what was going on!"

Maybe he was telling the truth, maybe he wasn't; no one will ever know. United in wrath, some of the dragonflies pinned Sparx against the crystal he had taken refuge on while the one who had become their leader found a shard of stone and impaled the yellow dragonfly on the magic crystal. Agitated, the dragon magic inside the crystal was released, and Sparx dissolved into droplets of light and evaporated, expunged from existence.

All of the remaining dragonflies grouped together and fled the Dragon Kingdoms, fearful that the dragons might try to bind them into the spell. Some of them, however, soon started to get paranoid about transforming without the power of the crystal protecting them, and it was quickly agreed that they would steal the crystal and take it with them, wherever they would go. As the dragons started rebuilding with their dragonfly slaves by their sides, the remaining true dragonflies snuck in and chipped away at the crystal's base as quickly and stealthily as they could; they were not caught. At last, the lump broke off of its stone foundation; a few fragments _were_ left behind, and no one ever knew what became of them. It took all of the surviving dragonflies to lift the solid chunk of magic, and they couldn't take it long distances without resting, but they carried it out of the Dragon Realms all the same.

Once they had their compensation, however, they of course began to fear that the dragons would come after them and try to reclaim it. In desperation, they fled to the one and only place that the dragons, even with their new dragonfly bondmates protecting them, could not survive: the dark grove at the end of the Silver River. They themselves, of course, were very much in danger living in such a place, but once they moved the crystal a certain distance into the woods, they were at least confident that they no longer needed to worry about the dragons taking it back.

The dragonfly who had become their leader by killing Sparx the Traitor, an orange dragonfly named Firewing, was seen as king of the group, and all the remaining dragonflies followed his command. He, like the rest of them, feared what might become of them if they didn't stay close to the crystal they had stolen, and so, the only thing for it was to somehow form a colony inside the hostile forest. In desperation, Firewing found a way to channel the crystal's magic through his own body, and shoot bullets out of the end of his tail section; all the dragonflies joined in this, and were soon, if nothing else, not helpless against the monsters that surrounded them. Still, they needed fortification; and so, they began building tools from sticks and stones that they broke into shards with their new power, little axes and shovels. They already had buckets, of course, and had almost immediately made cisterns outside where rainwater could collect so that they wouldn't die of thirst; as the trees were felled, the lumberjacks had the foresight to leave the tops of the trees suspended by their interlocking branches, and even cut off the tops of trees outside their settlement to add to the bunch, eventually covering the sky. Others dug holes and planted seeds between the trees on the outside of the clearing, sparing water to grow them, until the tree wall was impassible except for a few gaps too small for anything bigger than a dragonfly; they then started encouraging the natural growth of other trees throughout the forest, eventually developing the overgrown patch of woods with a thick canopy that completely blocked out the sun throughout the toxic land that stood today.

Some of the dragonflies found that they were capable of a sort of communion with the crystal of dragon magic, and were able to innovate with it to create things like lanterns that would indicate daytime and nighttime and a water filter that would allow them to gather a pool of pure water within their haven. One scavenging group - who used to have to go much further to find edible food - were attacked by a swarm of grove mites on their way home one day, and in the struggle, a dragonfly grabbed the tail section of a fallen comrade in a feeble attempt to defend themselves, and so they learned that they could amplify their new power through the spines of their dead kin.

~o~

"Everything else you see around you, Dragon Kilne, has been the result of the work and innovation of generations upon generations of dragonflies, for millions of years," Sparc concluded, sweeping his hand in a grand gesture. "And here, despite all odds, we have managed to flourish, safe from the dragons and the spell that binds the rest of our kind."

"Wow," Cynder breathed, stars in her emerald eyes. "I thought I was impressed with everything you managed to accomplish _before_ …What you've achieved is nothing short of miraculous."

"Thank you for your kind words, Dragon Kilne," Sparc said formally

Kindel gave Cynder an uncomfortable look, while Sley smiled nastily. Cynder realized her sister probably expected her to be upset about the death of Sparx the Traitor, but in reality, it explained how he had been able to come back along with her and Spyro, and she was strangely unbothered. She and Sparx had never been the best of friends anyways, and it had all worked out for the best in the end; she gave the white dragonfly a small, reassuring nod.

"And now, young dragon, you are one of us," Sparc declared. "No longer shall you fear our rejection or be bound by rules that do not apply to the rest of us, and no longer shall you fear the tyranny of the dragons. Dragon Kilne, you are a free dragonfly. Welcome to our family."

"I-I am honored," Cynder stammered, bowing her head and putting her wings into the gesture. A tiny, faint chuckle from Sley accentuated the nervousness she was trying to hide; she had no intention of staying here forever, of not returning to the Dragon Kingdoms. Still…maybe something could eventually be worked out. She didn't have to have a solution _right now_.

After that, the day proceeded normally, Cynder taking up her normal role in the kitchens. Alone with her thoughts for the most part, as everyone focused on their designated tasks, her mind oscillated between contemplating the tale of how these dragonflies had come to be and reflecting on her nightmare. Somehow, the two felt related…the beginning of this pocket of resistance, and the potential end, in a way. She _was_ capable of the actions she had taken in her nightmare, she couldn't deny that…if Spyro stopped visiting her in her dreams, would she want to? He wouldn't, though, surely…It was just that, she knew that it hadn't just been a nightmare, but rather a vision of Sley's goal. How had she seen such a thing in her dreams?

Which brought her to the dragonfly secret, their yellow crystal of dragon magic. What sort of powers did it possess? It protected the dragonflies who clung to it from being transformed…but how? What did it stand for? What did it _mean_? And…could Sley have used it to _plant_ that nightmare in her head? What if he started using it to block Spyro out, so she'd think she'd been abandoned as she had been in her nightmare? Did it have that kind of power? Did _he_ have that kind of power? From the sound of things, some dragonflies could tap into the magic better than others…what determined who could use it more effectively? So many questions…so many uncertainties, so many fears. Could she even trust what was happening in her own mind anymore? Had the peace of mind she'd found here really come from herself, or even her amulet, or had it come from an outside force trying to control her?

At the core of it all, Cynder discovered something else about herself: she _feared_ dragon magic. There was no telling what it could do, including what it could do to a person's mind. Malefor's magic had done impossible things to her, given her impossible powers - including granting her use of the element of Fire - forced her newly-hatched self directly into an adult body…even after Spyro purged Malefor's influence from her heart, mind, and soul, some of that power still lingered, allowing her communion with forbidden elements. It wasn't something that could be trusted, or controlled, or even predicted - the side effects of any sort of dragon magic were impossible to find any sort of pattern in. The magic binding dragons and dragonflies had had a completely unpredicted effect - Sparx _hadn't_ had any idea, Cynder was certain of that much, it wasn't unreasonable that he'd just fled as soon as he saw something unexpected happening, he was a coward like that. And…impaling him against crystallized dragon magic had added his soul, body, and memories to the crystal that had suspended her in time, along with Spyro's soul, body, and memories - it made sense, in a way, but it also didn't. From the spell the Chronicler had worked on her amulet to help give her peace of mind to Spyro's dream walking spell, from reincarnation and the powers of the Ancestors to the simple matter of how dragon maturation happened…dragon magic was uncontrollable, unpredictable, and just downright unsafe. She didn't want any part of it, and yet it was part of her…so, in a sense, she feared her own self.

During the down time after all the food had been leeched of poison, Cynder stood by, silent for a change, occasionally biting the talon that came off of her right wing in a sort of nervous twitch. Her mind was spiraling freely, and she wasn't sure…

"Cynder?"

The sound of her real name made Cynder jump, but when she blinked to awareness, she found that it was Kindel who had approached her.

"Are you okay?" asked the white dragonfly, concern radiating from her pink eyes.

Cynder chuckled weakly. "Not really," was all she could manage.

Kindel buzzed over and rested between Cynder's horns. "Is it about how we killed Sparx?"

Another chuckle worked its way out of Cynder's throat. "Partly, but not for the reason you think." She hesitated, then lowered her voice and told Kindel, "Sparx came back, with me and Spyro. Spyro had a yellow dragonfly bondmate when he was reborn, and until he came to release me from my crystal prison on the White Isle, he needed one - when he came, ready to recover his powers and memories, somehow Sparx's old self had been worked into the crystal too, and the dragonfly became Sparx…well, he'd always been named Sparx, but you know what I mean." She sighed. "I guess…now I know how that happened. But it just brings up more questions than it answers."

"Whoa," Kindel muttered, "I did _not_ see that one coming. That wasn't mentioned in any myths…"

"Not in the dragon myths, either," Cynder reassured her. "It came as a surprise to everyone…a pleasant surprise, our little family back together at last, but…" She shook her head, gently, so as not to dislodge her passenger. "I just don't know what to expect anymore. It seems like dragon magic is capable of literally anything, and can't be controlled or directed. I mean, what if Sley used it to plant that nightmare in my head last night?"

"What was the nightmare about?" Kindel asked.

With a sigh, Cynder retold her dream, echoing a few of her other fears about dragon magic as well. It felt good to get it off her chest and tell someone, but the relief was marginal.

"I'm not sure what Sley might be able to do with that crystal," Kindel admitted, "but it seems like dragon magic isn't just random…more like it has a mind of its own, an awareness of what it's doing. Sometimes…or maybe not…" The princess trailed off, and Cynder could almost hear her thinking.

"Should I have just let nature take its course?" Cynder finally sighed. "I love Spyro…but maybe that should have meant that I respect his wishes and his sacrifice and continue living for him. It would have saved everyone so much trouble…"

"Well, for one thing, there's the thing about the Dark Master coming back," Kindel reminded her. "For another thing, if whatever eggs you and Spyro have hatch into dragons that can breed with the current half-dragons, that would keep every single dragon from having the same female ancestor - we were lucky to have had several of both sexes survive the contract, so we didn't inbreed too much and weaken ourselves anyway. And, really…Spyro deserved to have a life, after everything he did."

"He already had a life," Cynder said miserably. "And now he's had _two_ lives - twice, he's been able to grow up, a normal kid with a normal family and friends…relatively normal, anyway. I haven't even been able to do that once."

A tiny hand traced the pattern on Cynder's forehead. "Well, your time here hasn't been so bad, right?" her sister said gently. "You've kind of had a life here, in a way. That's what you left for, and you've said that you found it with us."

"Yeah…" Cynder sighed, and the older demons in her mind retreated. Her newer ones stayed, however, and even with her amulet, she didn't feel much better.

Suddenly, a tiny jolt, one Cynder couldn't see, could only feel, arched between Kindel's hand and her own body. Kindel gasped, so Cynder knew she'd felt it too.

"What was that?" Cynder asked softly.

"I don't know…" Kindel's hand ran over Cynder's forehead. "But…I can… _feel_ you. It's like I…like we…"

"Oh no."

Both said the words at once, as they realized what must have happened: Cynder and Kindel had formed a bond.

"Are you okay?" Cynder asked worriedly.

"I don't feel any different," Kindel replied, buzzing back into the air to look Cynder in the eye. She did indeed appear to be the same dragonfly as before, and her bond with Cynder was invisible - but still, Cynder could feel it.

And that was the last straw; Cynder collapsed, unable to even hold herself up anymore. "Dragon magic," she groaned. " _Again_. Why can't it wait until it's told what to do?"

"This doesn't have to be so bad, sister," Kindel argued gently, hovering down close to the ground to be near Cynder's closed eyes. "We've been inseparable for a long time anyway, and I don't feel transformed or chained."

One emerald eye opened to look at the glowing bug. "What about if I'm fighting a wolf or something and get hit?"

"Oh."

"Yeah, _oh_." Cynder closed her eye again. "This is a disaster. Should we tell your dad? Maybe he can use the crystal to fix this."

"I don't think we should tell him, no," Kindel replied; "being a dragon's bondmate is considered a fate worse than death, it's what we've all grown up with…it's not so bad, but as a dragonfly who isn't in a bond, he'll think it is."

"Maybe it's best if he does," Cynder mumbled, still on the ground, barely awake. "Then he'd do something about it."

"Sister…"

But Cynder's mind shut down, unable to take anymore.

And it just so happened that that was when a few nearby dragonflies noticed the unconscious dragon.

"Is everything okay, Kindel?" Lyte asked, concerned, Glimm and Scye and Tearcutter right behind her. "What happened to Kilne?"

"I-I'm not sure," Kindel stammered. "She just…passed out. Um…Dad told her our story this morning, maybe she's…been thinking too much? I don't know!"

Instead of arguing, Lyte glanced at her friends, then said, "Well, let's get her to her bed, at least. Maybe she'll rest better there."

"Thank you," Kindel said, grateful for the suggestion without questioning. A few more dragonflies joined them, and they managed to lift Cynder up and carry her over to her leaf nest. Kindel found that she was able to use the bond to help lift the young dragon a little bit extra, so the work was easier than the other dragonflies anticipated; still, none of them suspected anything. She wasn't sure whether or not to think anything of it, but her brother was nowhere to be seen the rest of the evening.


	12. Chapter 12

_Cynder found herself flying to the Dragon Kingdoms again, a dragonfly clinging to her horns, sun on her scales, cool wind under her wings. It was exactly the same as the last time, and she felt the same elation and freedom. When she landed on the shore, again, it was Sley, not Kindel, who buzzed up from her head._

 _"_ _You know what to do," he said._

 _But this time, Cynder hesitated. Something didn't feel right - she suddenly didn't feel as good this time._

 _"_ _Don't you?" he pressed._

 _"_ _Y…yes," she said slowly. "I…Yes. Yes, I do!" Just like that, her determination welled up inside her again, as though it had been dumped into her body. "This will be the beginning and the end!"_

 _"_ _You don't have to do this!" called a distant female voice._

 _Sley and Cynder both turned in surprise to see a white dragonfly buzzing towards them as fast as her wings could carry her._

 _"_ _Cynder," Kindel panted as she reached them, "you don't have to do this. Come back with me, we can work this out. You haven't made your choice yet."_

 _"_ _I…er…" Cynder looked back and forth between the two royal siblings. She wanted to follow Sley, but…again, something felt wrong._

 _"_ _I didn't invite you here, sister!" Sley spat. "Stay out of this! You don't belong here!"_

 _In the blink of an eye, Kindel vanished. Still, Cynder's unease lingered. "Maybe…"_

 _"_ _You. Know. What. To. Do." Sley told her sternly. "Free my kind, as we freed you. It's the least you can do for us. We gave you the only real life you've ever known; now, give life back to all of our enslaved kin. It's only fair."_

 _"_ _Right…" Cynder said slowly. She shook her head, as if to physically toss the uncertainty out of her mind. Her determination returned, and she looked up at Sley. "Let's do this."_

 _They hurried along the shore together. When at last they reached buildings, Cynder dug deep down and summoned the element of Fear, unleashing it in a terrible storm._

 _Buildings toppled, dragons screamed, and Cynder roared. Poison came forth next, drowning the entire town; dragons melted, gasping their final breaths. Sley was holding something that flashed yellow, and suddenly, dragonflies emerged from the fading muck - they were modern dragonflies as they rose, but then they changed, morphing into dragonflies of old._

 _"_ _You are free, my brethren!" Sley declared. "Behold, your true forms, free of the dragons!"_

 _The dragonflies seemed shocked at first, but as they examined their new, full bodies, their hands and fingers, they smiled, forgetting the loss of their bondmates._

 _"_ _Onward!" Sley cried, and Cynder took to the skies, all the dragonflies behind her, Sley catching on to one of her horns and riding with her._

 _From there, the dream skipped, as dreams sometimes do to gloss over the boring bits, flashes of memories of events all that were left: Dragon cities crumbled, dragons died in droves, and the enslaved dragonflies were restored, dozens at a time. Cynder made sure the destruction was thorough, and no dragons were left alive, glaring down at her handiwork with satisfaction. Some of the dragons saw her, though, and died with confusion in their eyes - for some reason, this made her shudder._

 _"_ _Cynder, stop!"_

 _At last, the voice she had been waiting for. Cynder turned to see Spyro darting through the air towards her; her eyes narrowed at the sight._

 _"_ _Look who finally decided to show up," she taunted. Again, the dream-memory flashed through her mind, that Spyro had stopped visiting her in her dreams one day, out of nowhere._

 _"_ _What are you doing?!" he exclaimed, his broken heart shining through his amethyst eyes, dampening her joy. "Stop this, Cynder!"_

 _"_ _I…I have every right to do this!" she snarled, trying to summon her hatred. "The dragons are dead already, they're no great loss - they would have controlled me, just like Malefor did, just like_ you _did! No one has ever given me a chance to make my own life, my own identity, until I found the remaining dragonflies, living in the most dangerous place in the world just to hide from those who would enslave them. That's all dragons do, is enslave! No one is ever given a choice, especially not me!"_

 _"_ _I gave you a choice, Cynder," Spyro said softly. "I've never tried to control you."_

 _"_ _Lies!" she spat. "Why did you save me, Spyro? In Convexity, as Malefor absorbed the energy I brought him - why did you take me out with you, instead of leaving me behind?!"_

 _"_ _Because…I…you…because it wasn't your fault!" he exclaimed. "He was using you, controlling you-"_

 _"_ _You didn't know that!" she snapped. "You have no idea how I felt serving Malefor! I_ loved _it! It was_ you _who made me feel bad about it, saving my life, making me doubt what I was born with. And it doesn't matter who was right - the point is, you decided you knew me when you knew nothing about me and forced your views on me! Only the dragonflies have given me the freedom to find myself on my own, without forcing me anywhere. Enough is enough!"_

 _She threw herself through the air like an arrow, slamming into Spyro and tackling him to the ground. Viciously, she swung claws and tail, using Shadow and Poison and Fear to beat him down. Unable to just take it, he tried to shield himself with his wings; then, he closed his eyes in sorrow, and started to fight back. By then, though, it was too late - he didn't have enough strength left to fight her, especially not with her mastery of the forbidden elements. Finally, he fell to the ground, defeated._

 _"_ _You fool," Cynder snarled as she stalked over to him. "You thought you could trick me, own me, just like every other dragon I've met. I followed you out of fear and shame, but now I'm free of both, and I know who I am: I am not your wife. I'm no one's wife, partner, bondmate - I am alone!" She smirked. "Just like you."_

 _He gave her one last, desperate, devastated look. She slowly lifted a claw and put it on his neck. Applying pressure, she turned her claws at just the right angle, and in one, swift motion, cut out his throat._

 _As his blood poured onto the dirt, splattering her face, power welled up inside her, a sensation she'd felt once before, the moment she'd hatched - all at once, she grew into a full-sized dragon, the very same one who had served Malefor long ago. This time, though, she served no one. Spyro's lifeless corpse looked so small at her feet, and for a moment, the ring that still clung to her claw - it had grown with her - gave her pause, a moment's thought to the love she'd thought they shared…but then she shook it aside, and roared her triumph to the skies._

 _This time, her voice was the only one she could hear; Sley wasn't laughing._

Cynder didn't wake up screaming; her eyes just snapped open all at once, and she jumped out of her nest, breathing heavily. After a minute, her heart calmed, and she curled up in her leafy bedding again.

It had been different this time…same outcome, but something had changed. Kindel's presence in her dream flitted through her mind, and she wondered if it was because she was her bondmate now. Come to think of it, Kindel hadn't been her bondmate in her dream, not even this time…or had she? Even as Cynder thought, the feelings and memories of the dream began to recede, as she regained awareness of reality and shook off the last of the nightmare. No, she hadn't been, but…in that moment when she'd been there…before Sley banished her, there had been a link of some sort, still. This worried her; it implied that there really was something more to this nightmare than just simple dreaming.

Tomorrow, Spyro would visit her in her dreams; there would be no more nightmares for a while. Clinging to this thought, Cynder forced herself to relax, and she dozed off into a mercifully dreamless sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning started out eventless - Cynder rose to heat the cauldrons and carry the water as always, as though nothing had happened. Of course, she was the first one up, same as every morning, always eager to work and earn her keep; as the other dragonflies woke, things became more and more different. All of dragonflies were somehow even more friendly towards her, and quite a few expressed concern about her fainting spell the previous night - Lyte even buzzed over to ask after her health before heading off to forage. Cynder assured everyone that she was fine, turning down their offers of a day off or food to make up for missing dinner, stating that it was better if she kept busy, and that, as a larger creature, she didn't need quite so much food. Eventually, things settled.

Once Kindel woke up, even though Cynder didn't see her, she could _feel_ her. It was only mildly distracting, always knowing the general direction where Kindel was and getting a faint echo of her feelings from time to time. Spyro had never told her about dragon/dragonfly bonds, what it was like to have a dragonfly bondmate…had it been the same with him and Sparx before she'd returned? From the sounds of things, it was more like Sparx had never been _able_ to be too far away from Spyro, until recently…or were they just _supposed_ to stay together? She wished she'd asked. _Tonight,_ she reminded herself, _I'll talk to him tonight, and I'll ask him - he doesn't need to know why._

 _Provided Sley doesn't lock him out with another nightmare…_

For she was fairly certain that that was what was happening to her. Sley was planting visions in her mind while she slept, trying to point her in the direction he wanted her to go; Spyro not visiting her in her dreams anymore had been a common factor in both dreams' memories, so she kept the possibility of something going wrong tonight in mind. Ironic, that he was trying to make her think that Spyro had given her no less room to be herself than Malefor had, when Sley himself was coming pretty close to surpassing even Malefor's manipulation. _I won't fall for it,_ she promised herself. _No matter what happens, I won't fall for it. I love Spyro, and he loves me, and when we're together again, we'll have eggs and spend the rest of our lives happy together in peace. Sley can't get in the way of that._

It was just as well that she kept telling herself this, as Sley essentially claimed her as soon as the day's boiling work was done. He insisted on teaching her more about the magic that kept their lanterns working and their water pure, suggesting in no subtle way that her dragon magic might improve both, even create new, better innovations. She didn't protest, instead paying very close attention to everything he said about the magic at work in this haven. As dinnertime neared, however, he drew her away from any prying eyes or ears with a vague excuse that she didn't buy. The moment they were definitely alone, he turned on her, rage suddenly twisting his face.

"Did you form a bond with my sister, dragon?!" he demanded.

"Er-!" Cynder blinked. "W…Why would you ask that?" she asked in return. This was going to be a duel of wits - one of them would get something out of the other before this conversation was done.

"Your fainting spell last night," he answered without missing a beat. "You've never experienced a dragonfly bond. Was it overwhelming, is that it?"

"Kindel didn't pass out," Cynder pointed out, "just me. I was…kind of overwhelmed, thinking about all the things dragon magic can do." She tried not to put too fine a point on this last, even as she added, "It seems like it can do a lot of things without any dragon asking it to."

"Like form a dragon and dragonfly bond?" Sley countered.

"Could it?" Cynder replied lightly. "I wouldn't be surprised if it could." She hesitated a moment, then decided to play her trump card. "It brought Sparx back from the past with me."

It was worth revealing this to see the dumbstruck look on Sley's little face. "Sparx?!" he sputtered. "Sparx the Traitor? Is _back_?"

"Uh-huh," Cynder said smugly. "When Spyro came to release me from my prison on the White Isle, and was restored to his old self in doing so, his dragonfly bondmate - who was already named Sparx - was restored to his old self, too. Our whole little happy family came back, all together." She smirked at the maroon dragonfly. "And from the sounds of it, _that_ was what Firewing did when he killed Sparx when the compact was made - put Sparx's soul with Spyro's soul, on the Isle of Time with me. So, thank you for that, descendant of Firewing."

Shadow-colored eyes narrowed. "What are you trying to prove?" he asked suspiciously.

"What are _you_ trying to prove?" Cynder responded with exaggerated politeness. "You still haven't told me what could possibly make you think I somehow entered a bond with Kin."

"Well, did you?" he snapped.

The key to telling a good lie was to keep it as close to the truth as possible; in this situation, however, there was only one thing for it. Cynder's emerald eyes looked square into Sley's black ones, and she replied, "No."

And with that, it was Sley who was trapped. If he called her out on her lie, he'd have to provide evidence for it - and, as far as she could tell, the only proof he might have was if Kindel's connection to her had interfered with his dream-weaving the previous night. He knew this, and for a long minute, there was silence.

"You know," Cynder finally said thoughtfully, "among the weak half-dragons that have lived with the enslaved dragonflies, one branch of them formed a clan called the Dream Weavers. They put all their magic into making dreams for all the dragons, and trying to filter out nightmares. I don't think their magic works on me, though…I've had nightmares the past two nights in a row. Weird, huh?"

Something snapped behind Sley's eyes, but just then, the call for dinner rang out through the clearing. He glanced in the direction of the square, then spared her one last glare and warned, "You'd do well not to push me, dragon. You may be a dragon born with ancient magic, but _I_ know how to _use_ ancient magic."

It was the closest thing to a confession she could have asked for. "I was just discussing an interesting bit of trivia," she said innocently. "How could talk of the Dream Weavers 'push' you?"

As crown prince, he had to get to dinner right away, since he wasn't locked away in his room, so he didn't have the time to respond, but the malevolence in his eyes still sent a shiver down her neck. Then he was gone, and she could breathe again.

"Sister!"

No sooner was the evil royal child gone than the good one appeared by Cynder's side.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kindel asked worriedly. "I felt you…"

"Just had a…conversation with your brother," Cynder told her reassuringly. "That's all."

"Oh." The white dragonfly smiled and rolled her eyes, as if that explained everything - which it did. She didn't ask further, but suddenly, Cynder had an urge to tell.

"Listen, Kin, I'm pretty sure your brother is using dragon magic to interfere with my dreams," she told her bondmate in one breath. "That nightmare I had two nights ago - I had a weird version of it again last night, after I passed out." Not caring that they were supposed to be at dinner, Cynder explained everything, the words tumbling out of her mouth almost faster than her tongue could form them. Kindel didn't interrupt, didn't question it, didn't even point out that they were supposed to be somewhere else; she just listened, intently, her fuchsia eyes too deep and ponderous for her young face. It was weird, but Cynder somehow knew that Kindel understood every single word she was saying.

"I knew my brother was a snake," she said when her dragon finished, "but I had no idea he'd go to these kind of lengths. We need to tell my dad about this, now."

"No!" Cynder hissed. "Then we'd have to tell him everything! Who I am, about our bond…Spyro's going to see me in my dream tonight, I'll get his advice. But…I need you to be awake and focused on our bond, so if I need you to help me block Sley out, you'll be there. I don't trust him to stop at giving me nightmares…especially not now."

"Got it," Kindel promised, nodding. "Now come on - dinner!"

They left, and the questions they got were shrugged off as being dragon-related things - something to do with Cynder's fainting spell the previous night, was the vague explanation they gave. No one suspected a thing. As they ate, Cynder pondered that, how no one here questioned what they were told. They were supposed to be a suspicious and careful people, but their distrust was only directed at strangers and monsters - they didn't suspect any deception from each other. What a perfect society for someone like Sley to manipulate…


	14. Chapter 14

_A new dream came to Cynder that night._

 _She was at the top of a tower of crystal and lightning, darkness crackling through the air. This was her lair, her home, which Malefor had given her. Up here, she'd spent many days, years, thinking things through, planning, learning, serving. Most people thought she'd been nothing but the Dark Master's puppet, flying into battles to wreak havoc across the world, but that hadn't been true. No, she'd had plenty of time to herself, to pursue her own interests._

 _As a whelp now, she took to the sky and drifted around her fortress, seeing it all again with a new eye. An odd pang of longing tightened her chest, and the corners of her emerald eyes began to sting. She had been a queen, a warlord - everyone had answered to her, obeyed her. Not once, during her long hours in this place, had she ever questioned who she was, what she wanted. No…she had been happy here, happier than she'd ever been otherwise. Living free of the Dark Master's 'control', she had feelings, decisions, doubts - the things that were part of 'life'. Pure happiness wasn't for those who lived for others. Only in selfishness, in loyalty, had she been certain, secure, content._

 _For many, this place was a dark and evil domain, a horrid land that no one neared. But for her…even now, it represented the happiest times she'd ever known. Even happier than she had ever felt being with Spyro. No, she hadn't been in love with Malefor, though she would have accepted a place by his side if he'd offered it to her…but she had been his daughter, more than anything. Horrific as the thought might be, Malefor had been the closest thing to a parent she'd ever known, just as Ignitus was to Spyro._

 _White Apes dressed in armor fashioned after her face and hide waved to her, saluted her, called to her with their strange cries in reverence. The greatest ones performed minor works of magic in her honor, a gesture to her. Not once had she ever felt unhappy in this place. No other place, in any era, could claim as much. And as awful as it was, she wanted to go back. Back to when nothing was uncertain, her power was infinite, her authority absolute, her duty clear._

 _After sweeping across the entire land, she returned to the peak of the tallest tower. This was where she and Spyro had first faced each other - where she'd held Ignitus while she used his power to finish the crystal that would give Malefor the strength to break free. And then she realized…no, she hadn't always been happy here. When she'd met Spyro's amethyst eyes for the first time, a bit of sadness had twinged in her heart. They had come from the same place, but she had been chosen for great things, while he'd grown up sheltered from the reality of the world. In humoring him with a battle, she had tried to teach him that life was hard. Every strike had meant something far more than any blow she'd landed on any other foe before; each one had been meant as a lesson, to teach Spyro how to feel pain, how to be less weak._ If only you understood, you wouldn't be here, _she'd thought._ Let me show you what the real world is like.

 _But he hadn't learned. Instead, he'd fought on, valiantly, putting up a much greater fight than anyone she'd ever battled before. Even adult dragons had been pushovers compared to the innocent little whelp. He wasn't even here for himself, he'd been here to save a dragon he'd only just met, yet his determination didn't waver in the face of injury. She could have killed him, and he knew it, yet he didn't back down…didn't learn. Selflessness…never before had she experienced it, and when presented with it, she didn't know what to think; it made her want to fight harder, hurt him more, but nothing she did fazed him. It had been so…so…_ unsettling _, to see someone feel pain and not learn to think of themselves more. There was no sense to it. When the crystal was ready, she'd left him with the dragon he'd come to save, yet he'd pursued her, ready to face more punishment…for what? What did he want?_

 _Of course, she understood now. Spyro didn't think of himself. He lived to help other people, it was what he was born to do - to guard growth and ease pain, to protect the innocent from whoever might hurt them, to defend every person's right to happiness against whoever might try to take it from them. Even her…after everything she'd done to him, he refused to leave without her…because she had a right to live, and that was what mattered to him._

 _Suddenly, this former refuge felt cold and empty, the stones around her like blades ready to cut into her flesh. Cynder shivered, curling around herself, huddling against the dark, evil miasma of the place - at last, she felt what everyone else had felt upon coming here. This was no refuge, this was no home - it was a prison, a dark stone fortress that represented pain and suffering, everything Spyro stood against. How had she ever liked it here? How could she ever have felt content in this place, living this life?_

 _And that was when the click of little claws caught her attention. Slowly, meekly, she turned her head around to look behind her…and there was Spyro._

 _"_ _Spyro!" she gasped, lunging over to him. He caught her in his wings, and they embraced._

 _"_ _Cynder," he sighed, as though he hadn't seen her in years. "Cynder…"_

 _"_ _A-Are you okay?" she asked, pulling her head back to meet his eyes. Those warm, shining eyes…a refuge far better than this place had ever been._

 _"_ _I've…been having nightmares," he replied slowly._

 _She blinked. "Me too," she said. "Nightmares where I…I went home, to the Dragon Realms, and killed everyone and destroyed everything…where I killed_ you _…"_

 _"_ _I've been dreaming the same things!" he exclaimed. "I…I almost didn't come to you tonight, Cynder, I was…afraid."_

 _"_ _I'm glad you did," she told him. "When I had those dreams, a major factor in the things I did was that you'd stopped coming to see me. I felt abandoned…and Sley got into my head."_

 _"_ _Sley?" Spyro repeated, raising an eyebrow._

 _"_ _Er…" Cynder winced, knowing she'd slipped up. "Just…someone I…know, who lives where I'm staying."_

 _"_ _Cynder, where_ are _you?" Spyro asked. "I know I've said you have a right to your privacy, but…well…" He gave a meaningful look around them. "I'm getting worried."_

 _"_ _I understand," she sighed. "It's time I told you anyway. Spyro, I…I found a community of dragonflies. Dragonflies who escaped the magical pact between dragonflies and dragons. They've been hiding from the Dragon Realms for millions of years. I can't tell you where they are," she added quickly. "If a dragon -_ any _dragon - showed up in their city, well…you'd be attacked, and I'd be exiled or worse."_

 _"_ _Wait, I'm confused," Spyro said; "do they hate dragons or not?"_

 _"_ _They do, but I kinda…lied my way in," Cynder explained. "They don't know who I am, obviously - I told them my name is Kilne - and they think I'm trying to hide from the dragons same as them. It's taken a long time to earn their full trust - the last time you and I talked, I was still sort of on probation. But…they've been so wonderful to me, Spyro. Since they don't know who I am, they've treated me like a person, let me find my own self. I've learned so much about myself from being here."_

 _"_ _I'm glad," Spyro told her. "If they're helping you, then I'm grateful to them."_

 _Again, Cynder felt the corners of her eyes sting. "You're so sweet," she whispered. "I keep forgetting…just how sweet you are. It's hard to remember someone like you is even out there sometimes."_

 _"_ _What's that supposed to mean?" Spyro half-chuckled._

 _Cynder shook her head. "Just, how selfless you are," she replied. She took a step back and gestured around them. "Remember when we first met? It was right here. You were here to rescue Ignitus." She looked into his eyes. "That was the first time I ever saw selflessness," she told him. "You being here for someone you barely knew. I…I kept hitting you because I wanted you to understand that life hurts, that you need to think of yourself - and the more you fought me, the more I wanted to teach you about life…and the more you taught me instead. When I left for Convexity, and you came after me…I didn't understand - what did you want? But I do now. You put everyone and everything else before yourself. And I…" Her eyes turned to the dark floor for a moment, before she finally admitted, "I allowed the element of Dragon to purge Malefor's influence from me because you showed me something so beautiful, I wanted to understand. I could have held on to the darkness inside of me, and just died, but I was willing to let it go, because of what you showed me. You saved me…in more ways than you ever knew."_

 _"_ _Cynder…" Spyro put his forehead against Cynder's patterned scalp._

 _They stayed like that for a long minute. Then, fog started to roll in, obscuring Spyro's form. It was just Spyro, oddly enough - the citadel around them remained crystal-clear._

 _"_ _No!" Spyro exclaimed, and his eyes clenched in focus. The fog receded, and he opened his eyes. "I'm sorry, we shouldn't waste time," he said. "Who is Sley, Cynder? Tell me that much before I go, please."_

 _"_ _He's…the crown prince of the dragonflies," Cynder replied, fumbling for a moment before getting back on track. "He's very clever, and he spends most of his time reading books about dragon magic and who-knows-what-else. Spyro, I…I don't like him. He's not like the others - he's a creep, and…he's the color of Fear, with eyes the color of Shadow. That nightmare? It's his dream. It's what he wants…what he wants from me." She shook her head. "He needs to be stopped before he can do anything, but…I'm not sure how."_

 _"_ _Can I help?" Spyro offered. "If you tell me where you are-"_

 _"_ _I can't," Cynder replied quickly. "I'm sorry, Spyro, but I can't. It's the least I can do, considering how much I've lied my tail off to get these dragonflies to let me live with them. I…I'll figure out how to deal with him. We can discuss more next week, ok? For now, you're getting tired, you should sleep."_

 _"_ _Okay," Spyro said reluctantly. "I'll trust you, Cynder."_

 _"_ _Thank you, Spyro," she said. "I love you."_

 _"_ _I love you too," he told her. "Good night."_

 _"_ _Good night."_

 _Then, Spyro faded away, leaving Cynder alone in her dream-fortress. Once he was gone, she looked around._

 _"_ _Sley!" she called to the dark sky. "Face me now, or let me out of here! Let me sleep in peace!"_

 _Just like that, the dream world began to fade away, too. A moment before it was gone and Cynder was left in her own mind to rest, though, a dark voice whispered:_

You'll rest in peace soon enough.


	15. Chapter 15

It was almost a surprise when Sley wasn't hovering over Cynder when she woke up. The fact that Kindel was, on the other hand, felt completely normal.

"Hey," the white dragonfly whispered.

"Hmm," Cynder groaned, stretching and standing up. "G'morning, Kindel. Aren't you up early?" The lanterns were just starting to light.

"I wanted to see you," Kindel said. "Listen, I stayed up last night to see if you needed me through the bond, but…you disappeared. The moment you weren't awake anymore, I couldn't sense you at all."

This brought Cynder to full awakeness. She gave Kindel a sharp look. "Was it the same the night before last?"

"No," Kindel replied, shaking her head, "I felt you as I fell asleep."

"Hmm." Cynder shook her head. Last night had been different, but not _that_ different…

"Did you get to talk to him last night?" Kindel asked. "The Purple One?"

"Yes," Cynder replied, "but…it wasn't quite like it was supposed to be." She explained about seeing her old citadel, remembering being happy there - and Spyro's snapping her out of it. Kindel drank in Cynder's words with wide, magenta eyes; these were things no legend she'd ever heard had included. That was when Cynder fully realized that Kindel was actually _interested_ in dragons - their lore, their powers, their history. She hadn't just brought Cynder home out of compassion, she'd wanted to actually spend time with a dragon, learn about the race, from the very beginning. Cynder tucked the revelation away without acknowledging it.

When she was done, the first thing Kindel said was, "Did you ask him about bonds?"

"Er…no," Cynder answered. "I was kind of distracted." She blinked. "And that's exactly what Sley was trying to do," she realized out loud. With a shake of her head and a stamp of one forepaw on the ground, she gave a growl of frustration. "Damn it! I shouldn't have let him have his way with me!"

"He's _very_ clever," Kindel pointed out, trying to soothe her bondmate.

"So am I!" Cynder retorted. Her eyes narrowed. "Oh, I am going to-"

"-get to work, first," Kindel interrupted pointedly. "Today's still another day, we need food and water."

"Right," Cynder said sheepishly, flapping her wings. "I'll get right on that. We'll talk at dinner, yeah?"

"Of course, sister," Kindel replied, smiling, and they went their separate ways for the day.

Sley was nowhere to be seen while Cynder worked that morning and afternoon. When evening came, she expected him to start pestering her, but even for the duration of dinner, he was absent. The black dragoness recalled how Kindel hadn't been able to sense her the previous night, and began to wonder if perhaps there was a cost to Sley's use of dragon magic. She and Kindel discussed the matter over dinner, and agreed that it made sense; and if so, that could be a game-changer - if his power wasn't limitless, he could be countered. It was just as they reached this conclusion, however, that Sparc fluttered over to them.

"Dragon Kilne, may I speak with you?" he asked in a voice that was impossible to interpret. "In private?"

"Er…of course, sire," Cynder stammered, and she followed the king into a private corner of the clearing, much like the one where she'd talked to Sley that time.

"You've become very close to my daughter," Sparc said when they were out of earshot of everyone else.

In response, Cynder blinked; it sounded like he was about to reprimand an unsuitable boy for trying to make a move on the princess. "Er…well, yes," she said slowly. "Kindel has been like a sister to me while I've been here. She's the reason I ever came here in the first place - I'm grateful to her."

Sparc turned on Kindel with hard eyes. "Have you formed a bond with my daughter?" he asked accusingly.

"Wh-? I…yes," Cynder replied, surprised. "Yes, we've become good friends, I don't see-"

"No, I mean a _bond_ ," the king interrupted, glaring now. "As in a magical bond between a dragon and a dragonfly. Are you bondmates?"

"I…wh…why would you think that?" Cynder asked.

The blue dragonfly's glare sharpened. "My son is very familiar with dragon magic," he said, and Cynder had to hide a wince - of course, Sley would have tattled. "I've heard it is very…temperamental. If you've spent too much time with my daughter, a bond could have formed of its own accord, without your willing it. I'd like to believe you wouldn't intentionally enslave one of us, least of all Kindel…but is it possible it has happened nonetheless?"

For a moment, Cynder deliberated; at last, she decided, and bowed her head. "I'm sorry, sire," she said. "We were just talking the other night, and…I…I don't know how it happened. We were afraid to tell you, in case you'd be angry." She looked up, trying to put as much desperation as possible into her tone. "Is there some way it can be undone? I don't want her to be in any sort of danger, but I don't know much about how this spell works. Could you break it, or could Sley?"

He glared at her for a long moment, tension stretching between them. Finally he said, "I don't know. I will take your word for it that this was unintentional…but as for reversing it, that would have to be left up to my son. Dragon magic isn't something we often dabble in deliberately; Sley is quite remarkable in his accomplishments with the power." A bit of admiration crept into the king's tone, and Cynder knew she had her work cut out for her. "If it can be done, I'm sure he could find a way. If not…well, I don't know what to do."

"Please don't kick me out," Cynder begged. "It was an accident. And if it can't be undone, putting me in harm's way means doing the same for her - if she has to take a hit for me if I'm attacked, then I can't afford to be…out there."

"Yes, I am aware of that," Sparc sighed. "I admit I feared that that might have been why you would do it. But you've been a good member of this community…I trust you when you say you didn't mean to. I'll have Sley look into ways to break the bond. Good night, Dragon Kilne."

"Good night, sire," Cynder called as the blue dragonfly buzzed away.

As soon as her father was gone, Kindel came over. "What did my dad want?"

"He knows," Cynder told her. "Sley told him we bonded. I told him it was an accident and that we hope there's a way to break it; he said he'd ask Sley." She narrowed her eyes in the direction the king had gone. "And that's what I don't like about this. If there _is_ a way, I don't trust Sley to perform it unless it would serve his goals."

"Me either," Kindel agreed. "I'm glad you're here, Cynder - if you hadn't come, I wouldn't have found out what a snake my brother is."

"Your father adores him," Cynder informed her bondmate.

"Don't I know it," the white dragonfly sighed. "What bothers me is the possibility that he might be planning something - might even have been planning something since long before you came here."

These last words hit Cynder like a smack in the face. During her first days living in the Temple with Spyro and the Guardians, her guilt had allowed Malefor to work a tendril of influence back into her mind to manipulate her into leaving so that Spyro would come to the Well of Souls on the Night of Eternal Darkness - he'd orchestrated the whole thing, used her even after she was freed of him. Her leaving the Dragon Kingdoms this time hadn't been so different…had Sley _made_ her leave, _brought_ her here?

"What is it?" Kindel asked, sensing Cynder's emotions.

Quietly, Cynder relayed her fears.

Kindel gasped. "But…why?" she exclaimed. "Why would he…what does he want?"

"I don't know," Cynder replied, shaking her head, "but I can't afford to let him succeed, especially not if I'm right about him bringing me here in the first place. Maybe he wants me to free all the dragonflies, like he's been showing me in my sleep, but I'm not so sure that's it."

"Our bond wasn't part of his plan," Kindel said with certainty. "We know that much."

"No, it wasn't," Cynder agreed. "Which means…we need to hope he can't break it. Anything that works against his plans is probably good."

The only thing for it, though, was to wait for his next move, so the two sisters went back to dinner. With the king having been informed, their secret came out, and soon, everyone knew about the bond. Many dragonflies tried to comfort Kindel, and a few of them were standoffish with Cynder, but the news was taken better than they'd expected overall - the community wasn't crying out for Cynder's banishment, and Kindel was able to convince most of them that it wasn't so bad. Still, Sley didn't show himself all night. After dinner, Kindel still went back to her room to sleep; she and Cynder didn't have to be close in order to be close.

But no dreams or nightmares plagued Cynder that night.


	16. Chapter 16

The next day was a butterfly day, and for the first time, Cynder was forbidden to come along, because of her bond with Kindel. It was a significant loss - only since Cynder's arrival had any butterfly-scavenges gone without injury to any dragonflies - but at least Cynder wasn't blamed. So she took on her normal daily routine of helping with the boiling, bidding farewell to Kindel before the white dragonfly left with the butterfly-hunting group.

For a while, the day proceeded mostly as normal; some of the dragonflies were less friendly with Cynder, but the fact that not all of them held her bond with Kindel against her was more than she could have hoped for. Around midday, though, as she was lifting a bucket, something zapped through her chest, and she cried out and dropped the water. That was a bucketful of precious clean water dumped onto the ground, wasted, but Cynder was too distracted to notice. She landed and curled up, closing her eyes and focusing. Something was happening to Kindel, but she couldn't tell exactly what.

"Kilne?" asked a lavender dragonfly named Blossom. "Are you…okay?"

"It's Kindel," Cynder grunted. "Something's…happening."

Dragonflies clustered. Voices, questions, buzzed around Cynder's head, only a few of them actually getting through to her: "That damn bond." "Is Kindel okay?" "What's going on?" "This is your fault." "Is something wrong?"

"She's not hurt," Cynder managed to tell them, still focusing. "Just…surprised. Very surprised. And something else…I can't…" She shook her head, straining harder. "She's coming back," she finally said. "Something happened, and she's coming back with the group."

This was strange - even if a dragonfly got badly injured, teams never returned without filling their quota. Some of the dragonflies hurried to make up for lost production on the food preparation, but Cynder and a few others left to meet the returning team. They didn't have to wait long; Kindel buzzed through a gap in the trees minutes later, a bunch of others streaming in behind her.

"What happened?" Cynder asked as soon as the white dragonfly was through.

"Kilne, Kilne!" Kindel exclaimed excitedly, not even fumbling in keeping Cynder's final secret. "You won't believe what just happened!"

"I have a feeling I will," Cynder commented. "I felt you, you know. Lost a bucket of water."

"But but, no, it's so cool!" Kindel squealed. "Look!" She reared back her head, opened her mouth, and spat out a quick series of pellets. A few dragonflies had to dodge the onslaught, until the glowing balls popped harmlessly on the ground.

Cynder blinked. "Couldn't you…already do that?" she asked, confused.

Kindel shook her head. "No, it takes years of training to be able to conjure bullets," she told Cynder. "I've never tried in my life. But it's coming so naturally! And none of the warriors can do it so easily, or so quickly."

"Dragonflies at home can do that," Cynder said thoughtfully. "Maybe it comes of being in a bond."

This got the dragonflies talking. "I thought bonds only took from the dragonflies and gave to the dragons," Glimm called out from the crowd.

"Maybe not," Cynder said, shaking her head. "I don't know, I don't know much about the pact. Maybe it's give-and-take."

The mutters doubled, and a few odd glances were tossed at Cynder. The fact that Cynder was an unusual dragon with special powers was something they'd all accepted long ago, and it looked like some dragonflies were starting to wonder about dragonflies having powerful bondmates. For a moment, it almost seemed like this was becoming a positive thing.

Then someone said, "We should have Sley look into this."

Much to Cynder and Kindel's dismay, this quickly became a popular idea. They couldn't protest, and soon, a whole crowd was headed for the palace, to demand Sley's presence. All the dragonflies turning to Sley like this was a bad, bad sign, Cynder and Kindel didn't even have to look at each other to know they both knew it; if Sley was up to something, he had all the dragonflies behind him.

Sley emerged after just enough delay to seem like he hadn't been expecting the crowd; maybe he hadn't, but Cynder wasn't going to put anything past him at this point. There was some confusion as everyone tried to tell him what was going on at once, but eventually, the situation was conveyed; when he finally understood, the maroon dragonfly's bottomless eyes narrowed at Cynder. Cynder glared back, and he was the first to break eye contact.

"My people," he declared grandly, "I _will_ look into this, worry not! Perhaps Dragon Kilne's presence here could be made to provide _all_ of us with greater power."

This idea got the crowd very excited; smiles and enthusiastic whispers abounded. Cynder cringed; this was not good.

"Please, please, do not get ahead of yourselves!" Sley went on. "I will study this…with my sister's help, of course," he added, casting a meaningful look at Kindel. "I will study her. If anything can be done with this, I will find a way. For now, please, every day is valuable - care for your chores and your families, while I do the same."

Slowly, the crowd dispersed.

"You should get back to the kitchens," Sley added, looking at Cynder. "We need the water ferried and boiled, same as every day. I won't need you for my studies, at least not just yet."

"I'll see you at dinner, then," Cynder said warningly.

Sley waved a hand. "Of course, of course," he said. He turned to Kindel. "Come, sister," he said, "let us study your new affinity with dragon magic."

Kindel glanced at Cynder; Cynder nodded, indicating that she should go with him - for the time being at least. They needed information as much as he did.


	17. Chapter 17

For the most part, the day was uneventful after that; Cynder got a few flashes of emotion from Kindel every now and then, but nothing severe came across, and Cynder trusted Kindel to be able to handle her own brother, at least as far as this issue was concerned. When dinnertime came, Sley and Kindel did indeed join the rest of the city, but they were quickly swarmed by eager dragonflies, and Cynder couldn't get Kindel alone. Sley's "discoveries" were predictable - Kindel was able to draw power from the yellow crystal with unnatural ease because of her tie to an actual dragon. He didn't actually say anything else, but no one but Cynder seemed to notice or care - the idea of being able to make more use of their stolen dragon magic was just too exciting for anyone to be rational about things. Kindel and Cynder exchanged glances several times when the crowd's enthusiasm spiked over basically nothing, sharing the frustration in just how easily manipulated the community was by a well-spoken serpent.

Then nighttime came, and Cynder went to bed uneasily - Sley hadn't messed with her dreams the previous night, and she worried that he might be preparing something. Still, she needed sleep if she was going to keep up with the needs of the dragonfly society, so she forced herself to relax. Even if he did do something, they were just dreams, after all…

Sure enough, a vivid dream came. There wasn't any direction to it, though; Cynder simply found herself at the base of a huge lump of yellow crystal. She hadn't seen it before, but she recognized it - it was the magic the dragonflies had stolen from the Dragon Kingdoms. Looking around, she noticed she was in an underground cavern - a dirt floor, walls, and ceiling surrounded her. The crystal was up against another dirt wall; only behind her was there open space for movement. There was no doubt that this was the real place, the real thing; how she was seeing it in a dream didn't matter.

Nothing happened. Cynder looked down at herself, just to be sure, and found that she was still her black dragon self - though she must have been smaller than normal in order to fit down here, and the crystal looked familiar but was a lot bigger than the ones she'd seen millions of years ago. Warily, she approached the glowing golden chunk, afraid to make noise. Something was wrong here…

After a minute, she went around behind the crystal, and here, she found something: Sley, one hand against the surface of the yellow lump, his eyes closed, his expression concentrated. It took a moment, but Cynder noticed that there was a sort of pulse radiating from the hand against the crystal's surface, rippling through the air, crystal, and dragonfly.

 _Soon,_ murmured a voice - Sley's voice, but it wasn't directed at Cynder. She was hearing his thoughts. _Soon, I'll find the key…With my sister and Cynder bonded, I can learn more about our ties to the ancient race than I ever dared hope. I'm so close…_

He sighed, opened his eyes, and withdrew his hand. His black eyes gleamed in the golden light, and something in them that Cynder hadn't been able to notice in the waking world made her shudder - she couldn't identify it, she could only feel it, something cold and dark and evil.

Then he noticed her.

"Wh-What?!" he exclaimed, wheeling on her. "How did you get in here?!"

"Didn't you invite me in here?" Cynder asked, confused. "I'm asleep."

Tiny maroon hands clenched into fists. "I did _not_ invite you," he snarled. "You shouldn't be here…how are you…" His Shadow-colored eyes narrowed. "Get out of my head," he said softly. Suddenly, his maroon light exploded through the room. " _GET OUT OF MY HEAD_!"

Just like that, Cynder snapped to awakeness. The lanterns were all dark, and no dragonflies were outside - it was the middle of the night.

After glancing around as she regained consciousness, Cynder laid down in her nest again, her mind racing. The key? Sley was looking for something - she had somehow gotten into _his_ head this time, against his will, and at last, she had her first clue about what he was really up to. What was that about "our ties to the ancient race"? The dragons and dragonflies had no ties apart from what Sparx had convinced the dragonflies to later make…

…right?

 _Dragonflies._

She had never really given it much thought before, but it was odd how the name was so…specific. They must have been named ages ago, ages before Spyro's birth, to have known their own name but not known about dragons. _Did_ they actually have a tie to dragons, one that went back long before the end of the Great Era, before Spyro's birth, possibly before Malefor's birth? It would have had to have been _very_ long ago, for the circumstances present when Spyro was born to have existed…

Now, her mind started wandering in very odd directions, directions she was surprised no one's thoughts had gone before. The dragonflies had been accomplices, sidekicks, throughout the dragons' history, from the moment Spyro's egg drifted down to their home in the marsh; no one had considered what the dragonflies' actual history might have been. How old was their species? Where had they come from? Why were they called 'dragonflies'? The way they glowed…the way they spoke…the way they lived…they were a race of their own, a race that might even have some magic in its own blood, so they must have a history. Was it coincidence that Spyro had been raised with them, or had they always been fated to come together, their races always connected somehow? The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Coincidences were rarely what they appeared to be…

The black dragoness drifted off as she pondered this, her dreams - real dreams now - interspersed with half-formed ideas about dragonflies' true nature.


	18. Chapter 18

When morning came, Cynder went straight to work as always, but hoped Kindel would come find her. She tried to send a summons through their bond, but wasn't sure such a thing was possible. Fortunately, it worked somehow - Kindel came and found her just as she was heating up the pots and the other dragonflies were drifting over to take up their roles. With an excuse about their bond and something related to Sley's research, they were given leave to discuss things on their own, Cynder's responsibilities taken on by other dragonflies in the division.

Cynder started off by telling Kindel what she'd seen in her sleep the previous night; she hoped Kindel might have some insight, but the white dragonfly only appeared confused.

"Kin…what do you know about dragonfly history before Spyro was born?" Cynder finally prompted.

" _Before_ the Purple One was born?" Kindel repeated, surprised. "Er…well, nothing. We were just…a race living peacefully in a swamp…weren't we?"

Cynder sighed, "Kindel…I can't believe no one's ever thought of this before, but _why_ are you called dragonflies? You were called that before Spyro was born, weren't you? Before our species even met, at least in recorded history?"

"Yeah…" Kindel said slowly. "Yeah, you're right. But I don't…I don't know." She frowned. "Wait, I feel like…" Her glowing white head shook. "I don't know!" she exclaimed. "I feel like there's something…something in my head, but I can't grasp it. It's like a firefly - the more firmly I try to hold it, the more it…it hurts. I can't…"

"Hey, it's okay," Cynder said soothingly. "Don't strain yourself, Kin. It's just…your kind glows, and lives, and speaks, always has - is there some ancient magic in your own race, maybe some old tie to the dragons? Don't think about it too hard," she added quickly, as Kindel's face started to screw up again. "I just…have this feeling that we're missing something important. Maybe Spyro will know." She sighed. "Shame I won't get to talk to him for another five nights."

"Can you not find a way to talk to him sooner?" Kindel asked. "I mean…you found a way to dream-walk to my brother yourself last night; can you not find Spyro?"

"I don't know," Cynder grumbled, frustrated. Then she blinked. "But maybe…Kin, can you get me a fragment of the crystal?"

"A…fragment?" Kindel repeated. "I don't…Maybe?"

"Not a big one," Cynder pleaded, "just, like, what you broke off to make the lanterns."

"I'll try," Kindel replied, "but I don't know if I can get anything past my brother - he's spending all his time down there now…oh," she breathed, as she realized how this tied to Cynder's dream.

"It's a big crystal," Cynder pointed out, "and he's focusing really hard on something; I'm sure you can sneak in. Please, go try now - this can't wait, if he's getting so close."

Kindel nodded. "On it," she said, and she buzzed back in the direction of the palace.

While she waited, Cynder rejoined the kitchen team, who were grateful for her help. Some questions about the dragon magic research came up, and Cynder evaded as much as she could. It didn't really matter; a few vague words were more than enough to get the dragonflies excited, she didn't need to say anything at all.

Around midday, Kindel came back, holding something small in one hand. Secretly, the tiny crystal fragment was passed from the dragonfly to the dragon, Cynder taking it in her mouth. It wanted to absorb into her body, she could feel it, but she could also keep it from doing so. She was able to work the rest of the day with the little shard in her mouth, no one noticing anything. When dinner came, however, she had to opt out, for fear of swallowing it. Alone, she curled up in her nest and spat out the golden gem; looking at it at last, she realized it _was_ different from the gem in her amulet, if only a bit - it was more golden, a darker color.

"Okay," Cynder muttered under her breath. She took the gem in her left forepaw, holding it against her wedding ring, and closed her emerald eyes. "Find Spyro," she murmured. "Please…find him…"

Slowly, the yellow magic soaked into her claws. Focusing, she tried to keep it there, keep it flowing against her ring - the ring had some sort of magic in it that tied her to Spyro, or at least to the ring Spyro wore, she knew, that was why the Chronicler had insisted on marrying them so soon. That ring…silver, set with a ruby, her colors…

A flash, hopefully not so bright as to catch the attention of any dragonflies, burned against her eyelids for a moment; then, she felt herself detach from her body, and she was floating, flying, being pulled towards something like a hooked fish to a fishing pole. Time and space bent, in ways it wasn't supposed to, especially not at the claws of a dragon who wasn't purple, but she held on. And then…

As everything fell still, her eyes blinked open. Fog surrounded her, the fog of a place between places.

"Spyro?" she called. "Spyro, are you here?"

For a moment, all was silent; then, a figure appeared in the mist.

"Cynder?" came a familiar voice. "Is that you?"

"Spyro!" Cynder ran over to the shape, and the fog cleared to reveal her young husband. Without hesitating, she wrapped her wings around him, and found him solid. "Spyro, I found you," she breathed.

"C…Cynder?" Confusion filled Spyro's voice and, when she pulled back to look, his violet eyes. "How did you…why…what…?"

"Dragon magic," she replied. "I don't think I have long to explain. But, listen, something came up, and I need to know: What do you know about the dragonflies' history?"

"The _dragonflies'_ history?" Spyro repeated, still confused.

"I'm sorry, there's no time to explain," Cynder said, "please, I need to know. Why are they called dragonflies? Where do they come from? Your dragonfly parents must have taught you _some_ of the species' history while you were growing up; it's important you tell me anything you can. I'm not sure how long I can keep this magic up, please, hurry."

Spyro shook his head, her urgency getting through to him. "I don't know," he replied. "I never really thought about the dragonflies having a history…"

"You _must_ have, when you thought you were one!" Cynder argued.

"I…" Again, he shook his head. "I'm…not sure," he finally said. "I feel like…like there's something floating around in my head-"

"-but you can't quite grasp it," Cynder finished for him with a sigh. "It feels like a firefly; the harder you try to hold it, the more it hurts. Right?"

"Yeah," Spyro replied, blinking. "How did you know?"

"My bondmate said the same thing when I asked her," Cynder replied.

" _Bondmate_?!" he exclaimed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you - my dragonfly best friend, her name's Kindel, she's Sley's sister, we bonded somehow," Cynder told him quickly. She looked around. "Speaking of bondmates…can Sparx get in here? Maybe he knows the answer." Without waiting for a response, she closed her eyes and focused. Spyro was here, and so Sparx was linked to this spot. The connection appeared to her with surprising ease, and she tugged, bringing the yellow dragonfly into the space outside of space.

"Whoa!" Sparx cried. "What the-? Spyro! Wait - Cynder?!"

"Hi Sparx," Cynder told her husband's best friend quickly. "No time to explain; what do you know about the history of your species?"

"The history of _my_ -? What are you talking about?" he exclaimed.

"No time to explain," she repeated. "Please, Sparx, it's important. Why are your kind called dragonflies? Where do they come from? Why do they glow? Dragonflies glowed before Spyro was first born, right?"

"Yeah," he replied slowly. "Yeah, we…we've always had a bit of magic in us. A bit. Don't you remember, Spyro?" he asked, turning to the purple dragon, mercifully not questioning any of this.

"No, I don't," Spyro replied, his eyes wide. "Are you saying you do?"

"Mom and dad told us stories our whole childhood!" Sparx exclaimed.

"Did they?" Spyro asked, surprised. "No, I don't remember that. I mean…I feel like I should, now that you say it, but…" He shook his head. "It's like something's blocking my memories."

"What did your parents tell you, Sparx?" Cynder asked urgently. "Please, we need to know, it's really important."

"Um…" Sparx shook his little head, getting his thoughts in order. "Well, the dragons are an older race than us - at least, our history only goes back a few millennia before Spyro was born. We were…like, born of magical castoff or something…look, it's been a while, okay? We were…" He thought. "We were part of a spell," he said at last. "Or, an unintended side effect. Sparks of magic from…something or other, took on a life of their own, and became dragonflies."

"Go on," Cynder said breathlessly, feeling like they were on the verge of something huge.

"It's been a while!" he exclaimed again defensively. "They were just bedtime stories, ok? I haven't thought about them in a long time, not even taking out the five million years we were in stasis or whatever!"

"That's fine, I just need you to tell me everything you can!" Cynder cried. "Please, Sparx…I'm losing this spell, I only have a few more seconds, please…"

"Hang on," Spyro piped up. He stood back on his hind legs, raised his forepaws, and closed his eyes. An orb of purple magic appeared between his raised claws, gathering for a minute before expanding to encompass the three of them; Cynder's grip on the spell stopped slipping.

"Thanks," she told Spyro gratefully. Then she turned back to Sparx. "Sparx, please, go on," she urged him.

Sparx had been thinking while Spyro added his magic to Cynder's borrowed spell, a finger on his lip. "Okay," he said slowly. "I got it, I think…A master of magic from an old, powerful race once broke the walls between the worlds. The crack in reality cast off sparks, and from them, we were born. The one who worked the spell named us after his own race offhand; but us new creatures were afraid of the world we'd been born into, and of the one who made us, and fled. We flew for days, until we came to a peaceful marsh. Being alive, we needed food and water and rest, and as no beast like the one who had created us lived anywhere nearby, we settled. At first, we were afraid we'd be found, but no one came for us. We grew, and spread, until we lived like any other species of bug in the swamp, at peace with the land, the world, and ourselves. We know that someday, our past will return to us, but so long as we have a home, we live on." A deep breath followed this recitation. "Man, it was hard remembering all that," Sparx commented; "I didn't know what half those words meant until the last time I heard it."

"Sparx…" Spyro breathed; Cynder was speechless. Both dragons stared at the glowing bug with wide eyes.

The yellow dragonfly looked between them. "What?"

"Malefor made you," Cynder said in awe. "When he cracked the foundation of the Mountain of Malefor and created the Well of Souls, dragonflies were born from the castoff. He must have called you 'dragonflies' when he noticed you, before you fled."

"Oh." Sparx blinked. " _Oh_."

"Yeah, oh," Spyro said. "How come I don't remember this?"

"Can't help you with that one," Sparx replied with a shrug. "Mom or dad told us that story every night when we were little." He shook his head. " _Oh_. Wow, that's…wow."

"Yeah," Cynder said softly. "Thank you, Sparx. That explains a lot." She looked between her two old friends. "I have to go," she told them. "Thank you, so much, for this, it might save us all."

"Is it about Sley?" Spyro questioned.

Cynder nodded. "Yeah," she said, "I think he knows the story too, and he's trying to do something with it. I'm not sure what, but it's not good."

"Good luck," Spyro said softly. "Whatever you're about to do, Cynder, good luck."

"Thanks," she said. "Goodbye, Spyro and Sparx. I'll see you in a few nights, Spyro, won't I?"

"Of course," he replied.

"Alright. I love you," she told him.

"I love you too."

"What about me?" exclaimed Sparx.

But Cynder was already releasing the magic and fading away. Moments later, she was back in her leafy nest in the dragonfly city. Kindel was waiting beside her.

"Cynder?" she asked softly as Cynder stirred. "Are you okay?"

Standing, Cynder stretched and looked up at her bondmate, noticing as she did so that the city had gone dark. "Yeah," she replied. "And I think I found the answers we've been looking for."


	19. Chapter 19

"So what do you think he's planning?"

Kindel and Cynder had talked late into the night; neither of them could even think about sleeping, with the way things were going.

"I don't know," Cynder sighed, "but it has something to do with you being born of dragon magic. He wants to…I don't know, harness it somehow, in ways no dragonfly ever has." She shook her head. "Our bond wasn't part of his plan, but he's using it to his advantage. He really is pretty clever, I have to give him that…"

"Yeah, well, so are you," Kindel told her. "I'm sure you can outwit him."

"I'd better," Cynder sighed, "or who knows what he'll do." Again, she shook her head - she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "I just wish I knew what he wanted! He says he wants to free the dragonflies, but I'm honestly starting to doubt that - or, if he is, it's just to serve his greater plan, it's not what he's actually after. He…he wants the dragons out of the way." She blinked, only just realizing this. "The dragons stand against what he wants…maybe especially Spyro. That's why he wants me to destroy them all - setting the dragonflies free is just a bonus, a justification to convince me to do it and a means of getting all the dragonflies to follow him without question."

Morning came just then, the lanterns lighting.

Cynder sighed. "We'll talk more at dinner," she told Kindel. "Right now, duty calls."

And they went their separate ways.

Throughout the day, Cynder was lost in thought, paying only just enough attention to what she was doing to not make any mistakes. The dragonflies' origins had been unexpected, and opened up a whole new realm of possibilities and questions. It explained, at least, why dragonflies were able to commune with dragon magic - why dragon magic had been able to protect them from a dragon spell and keep them whole, and why they could channel it. An hour before dinner, however, some excited whispers caught Cynder's attention.

"He's going to announce something at dinner," Blossom squealed to a small group. "It's going to be huge!"

"What do you think he's preparing?" asked Linda.

"Knowing him, it's going to be incredible," commented Beylin.

"What's going on?" Cynder asked, approaching the group.

"Oh hey, Kilne," Blossom said excitedly. "Prince Sley's going to make a huge announcement at dinner tonight. He won't spoil the surprise, but…" She squealed with delight. "Oh, knowing him, it'll be amazing!"

"You…seem to think highly of him," Cynder commented.

All the dragonflies looked at her as though she'd grown a second head. "Sley's the most amazing dragonfly to ever grace our city," Carl huffed, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The most intelligent, the most powerful, the most charismatic…he will be our greatest king. He may even lead us out of this dark forest."

The other dragonflies were nodding in earnest agreement, and Cynder took a step back. Until now, she hadn't realized just how enamored all the other dragonflies in the city were with their venomous crown prince; any hopes she'd had of revealing Sley's true nature to his people were quickly shattered. No one would listen to her, no one would believe her - even with Kindel backing her up, there would be no stopping him by winning over the people. Only facing him head-on would prevent whatever diabolical plan he was concocting from being realized. As for whatever his dinner announcement was going to be…all she could do was brace herself. Tactfully avoiding protest, Cynder left the group to their eager gossiping; as she walked away, she noticed a lot of similar clusters throughout the clearing.

It was going to be a bad night. How bad? Surely, she couldn't imagine…

With a sense of looming dread, Cynder waited restlessly for dinnertime. When it arrived, the first course was served, and every dragonfly was fed, though all of them were eagerly awaiting the news. Cynder picked at her food, trying to think, to prepare herself. Whatever he was going to say, she needed to be ready to find ways to counter it…she needed to be at the top of her game, yet she could barely force down a few mouthfuls of bog rat.

Then, at last, the maroon dragonfly flew up, high above the center of the town square, and declared, "My people!"

A hush fell over the crowd, as all the dragonflies in the city looked up at their crown prince with admiration and anticipation.

"I have an announcement to make," Sley declared. "I know you have all waited impatiently all afternoon for this; I will make you wait no longer." His Shadow-colored eyes ran over the crowds…and stopped on Cynder. "Dragon Kilne," he said grandly, "if you would, please come forward."

All eyes turned on the black dragoness. For all her preparing, Cynder had _not_ expected this; her emerald eyes wide, she slowly walked up to the evil dragonfly, knowing she couldn't do anything else. Sley buzzed down to her eye level, then spoke, his sonorous voice clear to all who were in attendance.

"Fair dragoness," he said, his tone oddly tender, "in the time I have known you, I have come to admire everything you are. Your wit, your strength, your passion…your kind heart. It is clear to me that you were born to be a queen - you put all women I've ever met to shame. So, though our flesh may be different…" He reached somewhere - Cynder couldn't tell where - and pulled out a stone ring set with a fragment of the golden crystal, then held it out to her reverently. "Will you be my bride?"

Silence, total and absolute, filled the city. Sley's words took a long time to process in Cynder's mind - they were ludicrous, absurd, impossible. How could he ask such a thing? _Why_ would he ask such a thing? Frantically, Cynder looked around, searching for some sort of support, but what she saw froze her heart: Jealousy. Every female dragonfly in the clearing was glaring at her with green-eyed envy, some males, too; the rest were glaring at her with a sort of disgust - a dragon as their queen?

Feeling alone and helpless, Cynder turned back to the dragonfly who still held out the ring he had likely crafted himself. She searched his pitch-black eyes for an explanation, a reason, a trick, but here, too, she found something unexpected: sincerity. He wanted to marry her, for some reason…what that reason might be, though, Cynder couldn't be sure.

And she didn't trust him.

"I…" she finally managed to choke. "I'm…I'm flattered, Prince Sley, I am…but I don't think…it would be right for me to rule a species that isn't mine, even secondarily. I'm not a dragonfly. We couldn't…have heirs…"

"My sister is fertile," Sley said dismissively; "our royal lineage will not die out. And you are more dragonfly than dragon, are you not? You've been accepted here as one of us, one of the greatest assets our community has ever been blessed with."

"Only because I'm bigger than you," Cynder pointed out. "I just happen to have more muscle mass, so I can do more hard labor - it doesn't make me better as a person."

"But you _are_ better as a person," Sley insisted. "As I said, your heart is strong and true, your soul regal. I could never look upon any other woman, of any species, as a potential queen, now that I've gotten to know you."

Desperate, Cynder looked around until she found Sparc. "Sire, surely you realize this isn't-?"

"I've discussed the issue with my son," Sparc declared in a projecting voice - it was clear where Sley got his vocal strength from. "Though I admit it is unconventional, he has convinced me that this is what he wants. And in truth, I've always expected great things from him…it's not all that unreasonable that he should seek a bride above any common dragonfly."

Internally, Cynder winced; she didn't have to look to feel the daggers of jealousy being glared at her from all around. Sparc seemed oblivious to the matter, though, and Sley still held out the ring, patiently but insistently.

"Marry me, please, Dragon Kilne," Sley said, just enough pleading in his tone to sound convincing even to her. "I'm sorry for springing this on you, but…I could wait no longer. You have captivated me, stolen my heart and taken it far from my breast; I cannot breathe for my passion for you. As a dragonfly in all but flesh, please, I beseech thee: be my wife."

"I can't," Cynder said softly, without meaning to.

"You can, you can!" he urged her. Then he played his trump card: "Join me in matrimony, and you won't ever have to fear your unwanted dragon fiancé again. Marriage is a binding contract, recognized by all races - including dragons, surely. You could return to the world, safe by my side."

Through every last ounce of her will, Cynder met Sley's eyes. The smug gleam she was expecting was there - he had her trapped, and he knew it. Still, she could see that he really did want this for some reason. On the other hand, it hadn't escaped her notice that, for all his flowery words, he'd avoided using the word 'love'. He didn't love her - he wanted her, for something, but he didn't love her, not at all.

But she couldn't say that. No one would believe her. She would be shunned, looked down on, for passing up what every woman dreamed of…

A white glint caught Cynder's eye, the sole movement in the colorful sea of still figures. She turned her eyes, only her eyes, and found Kindel, barely motioning to her. Her bondmate. Though the white dragonfly's pink eyes were wide with alarm, she was still able to silently convey her support through their bond - she would stand beside her bondmate, her sister, no matter what.

And that gave Cynder the strength to do what she had to.

Taking a deep breath, Cynder lifted her head. "Crown Prince Sley," she declared, "I cannot marry you."

Surprise flickered through his dark eyes - which, in turn, surprised her. Had he really expected her to ever say yes? "And why not?" he demanded.

"Because I…am Cynder, wife of the Purple One, Spyro," Cynder answered in a strong voice, audible to every dragonfly in the clearing. "My heart is committed, to one who loves me, who has stood by me when none others would and whom I trust with all of my soul. And you, Sley, are nothing but a serpent - a liar, a monster with a dark heart and a dark purpose; I could never marry you, and I pity whoever would!"

Cries of alarm and outrage filled the city. The ring dropped from Sley's fingers as he recoiled in shock; of all the moves she could have made, he hadn't expected this one. Onlookers interpreted this to mean that he hadn't known, though, and the crowd's ire doubled, drowning out even thought with the sound of their fury. Recognizing that the situation was already well out of hand, Kindel broke ranks to be with Cynder, perching herself between the dragoness's two largest horns. Her tiny hands gripped Cynder tightly enough for her bondmate to feel, and she in turn knew what it meant; without waiting to see what might happen next, Cynder flapped her crimson wings, rose into the air, and darted towards the nearest gap in the wall. No dragonfly could match a dragon flying at full force, and without the need for subtlety, Cynder called upon her mastery of Shadow to slither through the trunks and into the dark forest, catching Kindel in a pocket to bring her with her. Cynder flew fast, dodging trees and vines, not headed in any specific direction and knowing she was safer for her randomness, Kindel clinging to the back of her head.

When at last, Cynder was too tired to keep flying, she dove down into the hollow of a large tree; a few living trees were here, and she had to fight to take them out, but she used Poison to melt the plant-based creatures away quickly, then dropped to the wooden floor, panting.

"That…could have…gone better," she finally managed to comment to Kindel.

The white dragonfly nodded, her fuchsia eyes still wide. "You did the right thing," she managed to assure her bondmate. "Turning down my brother would have made you an outcast either way; at least you escaped him."

"But I brought you with me," Cynder realized out loud. "You, Princess Kindel! They'll hunt me to the ends of the earth because of you!"

"They saw me join you of my own free will," Kindel pointed out. "Besides, I'm a dragon's bondmate - _Cynder's_ bondmate. They'll probably give me up for worse than dead."

Cynder's head dropped to the floor. "We were so close," she moaned. "We were just starting to figure out what to do about him…and now…"

"Now, we have to change tactics," Kindel said firmly. "We can't work from the inside, but we can still work from the outside. Whatever he's planning, it wouldn't stay contained in the city anyway - and we can be ready for when he reveals himself."

"Unless it's already too late by then," Cynder pointed out, her eyes still closed, her muscles still limp.

A tiny hand rested on the pattern on her forehead. "Get some sleep," Kindel told her bondmate. "I'll keep watch, make sure nothing sneaks up on us. We can start making our new plans in the morning."

"What about you?" Cynder asked, though she was already drifting off. "You need to sleep, too…"

"I'll figure something out," Kindel said. "Rest, Cynder."

And she did.


	20. Chapter 20

When Cynder woke in the dark, enclosed by walls and a ceiling, the floor flat and smooth, a dragonfly's glow the only light, for a moment, she thought maybe she was home, with Spyro and Sparx. Then she remembered, and closed her eyes again. Exiled. Lost. Helpless.

Why?

 _Why did Sley want to marry me?_ she wondered, for the first time. _He did want it, he wasn't just messing with me, and he didn't want me to leave, either - he wanted me to say yes, even though he must know I'm already married to Spyro. He doesn't love me…all his talk of passion,_ that _was just for show. But the proposal itself wasn't…He wanted me. Why?_

Faced with yet another conundrum, Cynder forced herself to her feet. _I can't just lie here and mope,_ she thought determinedly; _it's up to me to stop him, whatever he's trying to do - I know that at the very least, he wants to exterminate the dragons, so whatever his ultimate goal is, I_ have _to stop him._

"Kin," she said softly. "Hey, Kindel."

The glowing white spot on the floor made a groaning sound, then lifted into the air. "Cynder?" she asked sleepily. "Did I…fall asleep?"

"Yes," Cynder said, unable to suppress a chuckle, "and I don't blame you. We didn't sleep the night before last, and last night was…big. You must have been exhausted."

Kindel frowned angrily. "Sley," she grumbled. "What a cheap trick that was…"

"It wasn't a trick," Cynder informed her bondmate softly. "At least, it wasn't _just_ a trick. He meant that proposal. I don't know why, but he genuinely wanted to marry me."

"Wh…?" The dragonfly princess's magenta eyes blinked with shock. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Positive," Cynder replied; "he meant it. He thought he could corner me into accepting - he didn't think I'd blow my cover and run away. Guess he underestimated how much I didn't like him."

Her bondmate sighed and shook her little head. "My own brother…I don't even know him at all," she said sadly. "I thought I knew…at least a _little_ bit about him; but he's a total stranger. I have no idea what he's doing, what he wants…"

"Well, I'm at least as in the dark about him as you are," Cynder pointed out reassuringly. "All we know is that whatever he wants, we don't want him to get it." Then she sighed. "The problem is, from out here, we have no means of reconnoitering. We can only guess, really - speculate and make vague plans based on what we might assume. And I didn't expect marrying me to be part of his plan - whatever we might come up with probably won't be correct."

"But you're a dragon," Kindel said, buzzing over to Cynder. "An ancient dragon, with magic far beyond what you should even have been born with. You even have the Purple One on your side! There must be something you can do!"

"Until Spyro comes to see me in my dreams again, I'm stuck," Cynder told her. "I'd need another piece of the crystal to even contact him."

That's when Kindel gave a wry smile. "Well…I may have expected that," she said. She reached somewhere - just like with Sley, Cynder couldn't tell where - and pulled out the ring Sley had proposed to her with. It was set with a shard of the dragon crystal.

"Kindel!" Cynder exclaimed. "How did you get that?"

"I picked it up on my way over to you," Kindel replied with a shrug. "It has a pocket spell on it - Sley didn't make it specific to him, so I was able to use it to carry it with me."

A delighted laugh burst from Cynder's throat. "You're brilliant!" she praised her sister, taking the ring in her mouth. Then, she folded her legs underneath her and set the stone craft down on the floor to look at it more closely. "There's probably more to this than just a shard of the crystal…other spells have to be worked into the stone. Maybe a binding spell, to tie me to Sley…there's the pocket spell you mentioned, too…hmm…" Her emerald eyes narrowed at it. "Before I mess with it, I need to figure out what's in it. I'm sure I can figure it out on my own…it's dragon magic, I just have to connect with it."

"Anything I can do?" Kindel asked.

"You've done more than enough, sister," Cynder told her fondly. "Thanks to you, we might have something to work with. I just…need a minute with this."

"I'll go outside, then, and stand guard," Kindel said; "with the power from our bond, I should be able to at least discourage anything from trying to get in, so you can work in peace."

"Thank you," Cynder said, looking up at the white dragonfly. "You really are the best bondmate I could ask for."

"And you're the best dragon I could be bonded to," Kindel replied, buzzing over to the exit. "Good luck with that thing!"

"Thanks. Good luck keeping things out."

Kindel buzzed outside, leaving Cynder alone with the ring. Sighing, she put a single claw on it. Ironically, Sley's tutoring in dragon magic was going to be her saving grace - she understood it, at least to the extent it _could_ be understood, and connected with it. She closed her eyes and opened her mind, feeling out the little stone object.

Sure enough, various magics permeated the creation, with the crystal fragment powering them all. There was the pocket spell Kindel had mentioned, that was immediately apparent. As expected, there was also a binding spell in there - noticeably, one much more powerful than the one on her wedding ring; it would have granted Sley a tie to her almost as strong as a dragon/dragonfly bond, if not similar in any other way. So no, he didn't want her for a bondmate. It took a minute, but Cynder also found a light mind-control spell; it would only have the power to influence the wearer, not turn them into a puppet, but still, combined with Sley's usual manipulation, he would have had her under his thumb pretty easily. Some other, residual magic filled the ring as well - no fully-formed spells, but a few traces, as though spells had been half-cast before being forgotten, or entirely cast but then broken. Maybe Sley had experimented while implementing the enchantments, decided against some or had to reformulate others. Curious, Cynder dug a bit deeper, and eventually identified a few of the fragments: a love spell, a telepathic connector, a locator spell…things that would have been almost appropriate for a wedding ring. Of all of them, Cynder was especially relieved that the locator spell had been abandoned - Sley wouldn't be able to find them through this ring, at least.

At last, Cynder determined that she could extract the crystal fragment without too much risk. Just as she was about to, however, she hesitated. What was she going to use it for? Kindel wanted her to use it to talk to Spyro, but…if she was just going to run to Spyro for answers, she might as well fly home and get him in person. Thinking back on everything, her whole life, it occurred to her that Spyro had faced many great evils alone - including her - and prevailed, defeating monsters of legendary power by himself. She, on the other hand, had only ever prevailed against evil with him by her side. Throughout all of history, she had never been anything but a sidekick, second to someone else who led the charge - always a purple dragon, too, interestingly enough. This time…hadn't she already told Spyro that she had to face this on her own?

No. She wasn't going to take the easy way out this time. This was her battle - she had found it, and she would fight it, and end it. And the fragment of crystallized dragon magic she had at her clawtips…she only had the one use, she had to make it count. So what would she use it for?

Well…there was only one thing she wanted, really: to find out what Sley's endgame was. Surely, she could use the magic to get into Sley's head and find out that much - it wouldn't be a long-lasting spell, it wouldn't get her much, but the one answer…it had to be enough to get her the one answer. It had to.

A few minutes were needed to extract the crystal fragment from the stone - she had to be careful not to strain any of the spells so that they'd break in a way that would cause backlash. Finally, she managed to untangle the web of magic and remove the crystal; all the spells dissipated behind it. With the fragment safely in her forepaw, she clenched it tight, closed her eyes, and thought of where the shard had come from - her focus had to go there first, and besides, Sley spent most of his time right beside the crystal anyway. The magic absorbed into her eagerly, wrapping around her consciousness and carrying her to her mind's destination.

 _Zap!_ Just like that, she was inside the crystal - it was like her body, she could see and sense all the things around it. And it just so happened that Sley was communing with the crystal at that very moment; it took no effort at all to transfer her vision into his mind.

Cold. Dark. Brooding. Cynder shivered as she entered the maroon dragonfly's mind. His soul was pure evil - if ever there had been any doubt, it was gone now. Unfortunately, he noticed her. A moment later, they were speaking eye-to-eye on a plane of his consciousness.

 _"_ _What are you doing here?" he demanded. "_ How _are you here?"_

 _"_ _Your sister snagged your engagement ring," Cynder answered coolly. "I used the fragment to find you. And I'm here because I'm tired of your games, Sley. What is it you want? Ending the dragons, restoring the dragonflies, marrying me…it's all a means towards some greater end, isn't it? Tell me what it is you want!"_

 _Sley smirked. "You really_ are _clever," he commented. "Figuring that much out…it really is refreshing, to have someone who can think for themselves around."_

 _"_ _Cut the chatter, Sley!" Cynder snapped. She narrowed her mind-eyes. "I know the origins of the dragonflies," she told him. "Malefor created you when the Well of Souls was formed - your kind were born from the castoff."_

 _He recoiled. "How do you know that?!" he exclaimed._

 _It clicked. "Sparx told me," she replied; "Kin got me another fragment the night before last so I could talk to Spyro. He couldn't remember, because your memory spell reached him, too…but since no one had any idea he might even exist, you missed Sparx. Dragonflies used to tell the story to their children at bedtime, and he remembered it well enough to tell me."_

 _Shadow-colored eyes were round in total shock. Then, the maroon dragonfly laughed heartily. "Wow," he managed between chortles, "you really_ are _a clever one! Figuring out our history, the memory spell, getting around it…" He shook his head, getting ahold of himself. "Really, you've earned the right to know the answer to your question. What do I want? What I want, o dragoness of the shadows…is to be a dragon."_

 _Whatever Cynder had been expecting, it wasn't that. "To_ be _a dragon?" she repeated._

 _Her foe nodded. "If I can just connect deeply enough to the crystal, I can reverse the flow of magic across time and space, and become what our race was made from," he told Cynder. "I can become a dragon, a dragon of old, just like you. And you, Cynder, would be my wife…you and I could bring back the dragons of old -_ I _, not Spyro, could be the father of the new age of dragons. I could even use the magic to make it so that our offspring could have children without the dangers that come with inbreeding. Perhaps I could even transform_ all _the dragonflies into dragons - though I doubt it, to form a creature of such powerful magic will probably take the entirety of the crystal." Again, he smirked. "And you have not stopped me. I will rule the world, as a Fear Dragon - the first of its kind. Oh yes, I know what my color means," he added, seeing the look in her mental eyes; "I know why you were drawn to me that night, why you look at me in disgust. Never has there been a Fear Dragon - you're partly a Shadow Dragon, because of your color, and partly a Poison Dragon, because of your communion with the element, but never has a dragon had a true tie to Fear. And all will fear me."_

 _"_ _They already should," Cynder heard herself say. "You'll destroy everything to get your way. Brainwashing everyone with your magic so they'd all worship you was cheap."_

 _Laughter erupted from the evil bug again. "You even figured that out!" he exclaimed mirthfully. "Truly, the dragons could never have a better queen than you, Cynder. I was not exaggerating when I said I could never look at another woman and see one worthy of my future now that I know you. And you_ will _be my queen - once I manage to transform, I will find you, and you will be mine. Together, we shall create a new world!"_

 _"_ _You're crazy!" Cynder cried. "You don't even know what you're doing!"_

 _"_ _Oh, I know full well what I'm doing," Sley sneered. "It is_ you _, fair dragoness, who has yet to grasp what I will create."_

 _Cynder shook her head. "I've only known one person to be so mad with power that they thought destroying the world would make them a god," she said, "and that was Malefor. You're blind, Sley! Power drives people mad, and you're far off the deep end!_ Wake up _!" she shouted. "All the people you're going to hurt and destroy with your plan aren't worth it!"_

 _But Sley_ tsk _-ed and shook his head pityingly. "I already told you, Cynder: The Dark Master sought only to destroy, while I aim to_ create _."_

 _"_ _The Destroyer was fabled to create a new world by issuing its destruction," Cynder recited. "Malefor could easily have said the same thing."_

 _"_ _But he didn't, did he?" Sley countered. "No - he specifically said he was ending the world when he summoned the Destroyer. I have no intention of ending the world, my future queen, only of making a better one - one where everyone is under one rule, one flag, one nation. Mine."_

 _"_ _And what would you do with that power?" Cynder challenged. "If you ruled the world and everyone and everything in it, with the power to shape everything into whatever you want it to be, what would you make?"_

 _"_ _A world of freedom," Sley answered, stars lighting in his eyes as he lost himself in his dream. "No oppression, no fear, no slavery…well, none but what I allow. Being a Fear Dragon will allow me to_ manipulate _fear, not just cast it - whatever each person fears, I can learn, and eliminate. No one would ever be unhappy, no one would ever want for anything but to make their lives worth living by achieving whatever they can. And if ever a problem arose, I would end it."_

 _"_ _Why do I get the feeling it wouldn't be as wonderful as you make it sound?" Cynder asked, her mind-eyes narrowing again. "Sure, that all sounds nice, but how would you make it happen? Who would you kill? Who would you terrorize? How many races would be wiped out for not fitting into your perfect kingdom?"_

 _"_ Why _must you think so little of me?" he sighed exasperatedly. "Are you really so determined to see me as evil that you can't even give me a chance? I'm not a monster, Cynder, no matter what you may believe. I want to fix the world, not ruin it. It's plenty ruined as it is."_

 _The black dragoness shook her head. "Even if you believe that, it's not true," she told him. "Absolute power corrupts, Sley - I learned that firsthand from Malefor, not just from what he did, but from what he showed me when I hatched." Her emerald eyes narrowed into a glare. "I won't let you turn into another Dark Master. I'm going to stop you, and then I'm going to go home to my husband and beget the new breed of old dragons. For now…"_

With a forced shake of her head, Cynder brought herself back to her body all at once. That was the last of the powerful dragon magic she had on-hand; whatever she did next would take ingenuity and luck. But for now, at least her questions were answered. All that remained was to make a counter-plan.

"Kin!" she called. "I've got the answers we need!"

The white dragonfly buzzed in. "You spoke to the Purple One?" she asked.

"No, better," Cynder replied; "I got into your brother's head. I know what he's after."

"Tell me!" Kindel exclaimed. "Oh wow, _finally_ I can find out what's going on!"

"Brace yourself," Cynder warned her bondmate, and she told her what she'd found out.


	21. Chapter 21

"I don't get it," Kindel said for the thousandth time.

They'd been discussing Sley's dream for days. Cynder's control over Poison made getting food and water less than impossible, and besides eat and sleep, they'd talked and talked and talked.

"His plan _sounds_ so nice," the white dragonfly went on, as always. "If his dream came true the way he wants it to…apart from killing the dragons, it sounds like the world would become a wonderful place."

"Absolute power corrupts," Cynder repeated. "Malefor was a slave to his own power, and Spyro feared his for the same reason." She sighed. "Really, it's not so much what his dream is as how he's gone about trying to achieve it. He's hurt people, lied to people, cast spells on people to control them and use them - he tormented me in my dreams in the hopes of getting me to turn on my own kind and destroy the Dragon Kingdoms. No good future could come of that. Even if he intends to rule benevolently, if he ever managed to claim that throne, it would twist him. He'll never be satisfied…and when helping people gives him all the power it can, he'll start hurting people - his hunger for power will be insatiable. That's how it goes."

"Yeah," Kindel sighed, "but I just wonder if maybe there's some good in him."

"I've seen his soul, Kin," Cynder reminded her gravely. "There's no good in there."

Kindel gave her bondmate an odd look. "Didn't you say the Dark Master realized his mistakes in the moments before he died, and that you and the Purple One forgave him?"

Cynder blinked; this was a new argument. "Well…yeah," she admitted.

"And by then, the Dark Master had gone so mad with power that he was already destroying the world to become a god, right?" Kindel pressed.

"Yes," Cynder conceded.

"If my brother even _thinks_ he wants to make people happy, surely there's _some_ good in him," Kindel insisted.

"The thing is, Malefor already had power," Cynder said. "He was born with power far beyond what anyone could imagine - all he did was try to find his limits and discover that he had none. Your brother is a normal dragonfly, he's gone out of his way to get all this power he shouldn't have, and intends to go even further. He's _fought_ for what he has, he wasn't born with it. Really, he made much more of a choice than Malefor did."

With a sigh, Kindel nodded. "Yeah, you have a point. And you'd know better than me. I just…well, he's my brother, you know?"

"I don't, actually," Cynder told her. "I've never had a brother, or a sister besides you…but I guess, I can kind of understand wanting to believe someone close to me isn't pure evil."

"You get it well enough," Kindel assured her.

Night was falling, and this wasn't just any other night: Spyro was due to visit Cynder in her dreams.

"Get to sleep, sister," Kindel said; "tell the Purple One what my brother intends to do. I know you want to do this on your own," she added, making Cynder blink, "but he has access to knowledge and resources, while we're kind of stranded here. He had help from the dragon Guardians when he fought you, and the Chronicler's help when he fought the Ape King; and in recent ages, he's had help from family and friends when fighting evil. There's no shame in getting help and advice."

"Thank you," Cynder said softly. "You…really understand me, sister."

"Hey, we're sisters," Kindel said with a smile and a shrug. "We bonded for a reason. Now, go to sleep."

Obediently, Cynder lay down. There had been little opportunity to make their hollow comfortable, so it was still a hard wooden floor where she lay, but she had slept in less hospitable conditions, and though her circling thoughts kept her up for a bit, she eventually drifted off.

 _Fog enveloped her immediately, as though it had been waiting for her._

 _"_ _Cynder!"_

 _Cynder ran forward until she found her young husband; without a word, she wrapped her wings around him. "Spyro," she breathed. "It's so good to see you."_

 _"_ _It's good to see you too," he murmured, hugging her back. "I've been worried about you, ever since you came to me…it took a lot of restraint to wait until tonight."_

 _"_ _Thank you for trusting me," she said, pulling back. "Listen, I…I wish I could tell you everything's fine, but…"_

 _"_ _What happened?" he asked sharply._

 _She sighed. "It's…a long story." Summarizing as much as she could, she briefly explained Sley and Kindel and the dragon crystal and the dragonfly city (without mentioning how they survived or where they were). "I asked about the dragonflies because, one night, I got into his head by accident, and he was working with the crystal and thinking he was 'close'. The next day, though…" Sheepishly, she pulled her head back slightly. "He…proposed to me."_

 _"_ Proposed _to you?" Spyro repeated. "You mean, to marry him?"_

 _"_ _Yeah," she replied. "I…wasn't expecting that. Obviously, I couldn't…but I could see it in his eyes, he really wanted me to. Not out of love, but…he wanted_ something _from me. The only way I could get out of it was by blowing my cover, so I did, then fled with Kindel - she grabbed the ring Sley proposed to me with, it had a fragment of the crystal set into it - and…well, we've been waiting in a hollow tree since then. But, the day after, I used the crystal to get in his head one last time, and…" She shook her head. "Spyro, he intends to use the magic to_ become _a dragon - a dragon like one from our time, except he'd be a Fear Dragon, which no one has ever remotely been similar to before. Even_ I _barely control that element…" With another shake of her head, she went on, "And he wanted to marry me because he…wants to be you, basically. He wants to rule the world, with me as his queen, bring back the dragons of old and everything. He_ says _he wants to create a free world, where no one will want for anything and everyone will be happy, but…when I got in his head to see him, I saw his soul, and…oh, Spyro, it's so cold and dark, it's pure evil."_

 _Spyro nodded. "With that kind of power, it would be easy for him to go mad," he agreed. "We saw in in Malefor - absolute power corrupts."_

 _"_ _That's what I've been saying!" Cynder exclaimed, looking up again. "Thank you, so much, for finally getting it, Kindel hasn't been easy to talk to about this."_

 _"_ _Well, he's her brother," Spyro pointed out; "family's important…whatever family you can have."_

 _A chuckle escaped Cynder's chest. "You get both of us," she said. Then she saddened and added, "I miss you."  
"I miss you too," he told her. "Do you want me to come find you?"_

 _"_ _I kind of do," she admitted, "but…I found this, I need to figure it out on my own. But I don't know where to begin…I don't know what he intends to do now that his plan to marry me has been ruined. The dragonflies are all under an enchantment so that they worship him, there will be no getting through to them."_

 _"_ _I know you want to keep their secret," Spyro told her softly, "but…they like me, don't they? Having the Purple One visit them might-"_

 _"_ _No," Cynder said firmly. "No, you're not going to go in there and win them all over yourself."_

 _"_ _Why not?" Spyro asked. "It sounds like it would be easy…"_

 _But she shook her head again. "Spyro, I…I really have to do this myself," she choked. "You've fought monsters like Sley for all of both your lives, and you've done it on your own, with only a dragonfly companion and some elders giving you tutoring and advice on the side. This one has to be mine. I…I won't be able to come back if I can't do it myself."_

 _"_ _You have nothing to prove," he said gently._

 _"_ _Maybe not to you," she responded, "but to_ myself _…yes, Spyro, I do."_

 _He sighed. "Okay," he conceded. "You_ are _the one who found this; if you want it to be your battle, I'll let it be your battle. But is there anything I_ can _do?"_

 _"_ _I don't know," she admitted._

 _For a long moment, he looked at her. "Cynder…when someone hides behind others while they put their evil plans into motion, they fear interference," he told her. "Sley's a coward, like all the other villains I've fought, hiding behind his people and his magic. At least he does a lot of his dirty work himself, but…he doesn't want anyone opposing or questioning him - that's why he blocked everyone's memories of the dragonflies' origins and cast a spell on the city so everyone would admire him. And when someone's a coward like that…in the end, if you can break through all the things they're hiding behind and confront them head-on, they aren't so strong on their own. If you can get to him, you can stop him."_

 _"_ _I don't want to kill him," Cynder said in a small voice. "He's my bondmate's brother."_

 _"_ _I've never wanted to kill anyone," Spyro said in response, "but sometimes we aren't given a choice. It comes down to how many people you'd save by ending one life now."_

 _The black dragoness sighed, then nodded. "You're right," she said. "I'll find a way to get to him, and I'll stop him."_

 _"_ _Good luck," Spyro told her. "I'm thinking of you every day, you know…I'm here for you, no matter what happens."_

 _"_ _Thank you," she said softly. "I love you, Spyro."_

 _"_ _I love you too, Cynder," he told her._

 _They embraced one last time, and then Spyro was gone._

Cynder woke up; somehow, it was already morning.

"Good morning, sister," Kindel said cheerfully. "What's the plan?"

"You're not going to like it," Cynder warned.


	22. Chapter 22

So it was that dragon and dragonfly prepared for the final confrontation with the next candidate for the title 'Dark Master'. They had no armor, and no magic besides what they had naturally; they could only gather their strength. It was an interesting conundrum, actually: Dragonfly bondmates were supposed to take hits for their dragons because the dragons weren't capable of withstanding blows on their own, but Cynder had her own strength; what would happen in a fight? She hoped - though Kindel was torn on the matter - that it wouldn't even come to that, that Sley would be crushed like the bug he was once they broke through to him. Either way, though, they had to prepare. Spyro kept visiting once a week, but more to lend moral support than anything; still, it kept Cynder going.

Scouting seemed out of the question, but with a bit of practice, Cynder figured out how to use Shadow to hide Kindel and let her slip into the city. Days were spent perfecting the technique, until they could be sure they would remain hidden; then, one night, they left their hollow to head back to the city. True, Cynder hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been going when she fled, but Kindel knew most of the forest, and though they were lost at first, they eventually found a spot the white dragonfly recognized, and followed the known path from there. Once they were within where the dragonflies usually went, Cynder cast a cloak of Shadow over both of them - it wasn't perfect, but it would give them time to hide if they ran into anyone. Fortunately, they escaped notice.

And then, they were back to Kindel's home.

"I feel weird, spying on my own city," Kindel remarked softly to Cynder.

"I'm sure you do," the black dragoness murmured back, "but we need to know what happened after we left. If we've been preparing, Sley probably has too - especially now that he's revealed his endgame to me."

"I know," Kindel sighed, "I just wish…"

"Don't wish," Cynder advised. "Just focus. If we second-guess ourselves now, about anything, we're taking a risk we can't afford. I'm here for you, Kin," she added, more gently. "No matter what happens, you're _my_ sister - my partner, my bondmate…my family."

"Thanks, Cynder," Kindel said with a faint smile. "Alright…here goes nothing."

Cynder focused, summoning Shadow in its purest form. Shadows meant hidden things, where whatever wasn't meant to be seen by mortal eyes could dwell - the dark was the aid of the thief, the spy, and the hunter. Whatever was in shadow was uncertain, unseeable, impossible to pinpoint. And now, the white dragonfly who otherwise glowed like a little moon was shrouded in it, hidden from all. Once Cynder was sure she had the cloak firmly in place, she gave a small nod, and Kindel slipped into the clearing.

By some lucky chance, it was dinnertime - no one was outside the city, and everyone was together. Immediately, however, Kindel noticed the relative silence. She could see her people in the distance, filling the town square, but the excited voices that normally filled the air during the most social time of the day were absent. Already worried about what she might find, Kindel slowly drifted towards the crowd, hiding behind whatever cover was available - she trusted Cynder's magic, but there was no harm in being cautious.

What she found was a somber gathering. Dragonflies were just eating - not quite mindlessly, she could see the occasional exchanged glance or whispered conversation, but the overall tone was very, _very_ subdued. Interestingly, Sley wasn't present. Kindel couldn't get close enough to eavesdrop on any of her kind without risking physically bumping into someone - something all the Shadow power in the world couldn't conceal; instead, she left to look around where all the dragonflies weren't.

The kitchens were dark, but unchanged, which Kindel took some comfort in. When she checked on the medical bay, however, she found a large, militaristic clinic, prepared for far more patients than were normally admitted due to daily injuries. What was more, many of these preparations looked like they were ready for use on-the-go, or being readied to be useable as such. Afraid of what she might find, Kindel then went to the armory - a place even Cynder hadn't seen during her stay. The dragonflies collected any armor that could be fashioned, and all the tail sections of former warriors that could be gathered from those who died, either in battle or of old age (though it was rare for a warrior dragonfly to survive into seniority); now, however, there was a lot more armor than was needed for the warriors they had on-hand, and she also noticed sticks that weren't dragonfly spines - wooden sticks, with tiny, tiny grains of golden crystal embedded into their ends. There were a lot of these - the amount of crystal that must have gone into making them all was staggering to think about, considering how much they cherished their limited supply of dragon magic.

Before Cynder's arrival, people had talked occasionally about how they might go to war against the dragons. It looked like those conversations had progressed lightyears in the relatively short time she and Cynder had been away. Sley, no doubt, had constructed these magic staffs - there would be enough for maybe half the population of adult dragonflies already, and maybe there were even more still being made. Trying not to think too hard about the implications, Kindel tucked the observation away to discuss with Cynder and moved on.

Next was the nursery - another place Cynder hadn't ever seen. Dragonfly eggs were precious, as they had to keep their species going in the face of all the dangers and risks they lived with. Every baby dragonfly was treasured, a hatching was a celebration for a family and their friends. Of course, breeding wasn't so simple - they had to be careful not to inbreed, and certain scholar dragonflies kept constant records of family trees to make sure no one bred with someone too closely related to them. Of course, if two dragonflies loved each other but were biologically too close to safely have children, they weren't shamed or discouraged - love in this dark place was never something to be frowned upon. Still, when two dragonflies wanted to be together and were approved to have eggs, they always became the talk of the city, and everyone would pester them about when they would have children - it was rude, but no one could help it. Fortunately, the issue of inbreeding never plagued the royal family; their line was relatively pure, having descended from Firewing and his wife Natalie and kept separate from the rest of the community for the most part. Courting a royal was risky and bold - those who dared to try often found that they were right for whoever they pursued, and every king and queen had been unions of love. As for the current generation, Queen Kelsey had died one night, struck down by a rare disease, and Kindel barely remembered her mother; that there were two royal children was actually remarkable, as most monarchs had only the one egg, so Kindel knew her parents had loved each other deeply, but that had been so long ago…

Tonight, however, the nursery was dark. That wasn't right - someone always had to be attending the nursery, caring for the eggs; those who worked in the nursery rotated who had to stay there during dinner each night, but there was always one who stayed and waited to be brought leftovers by their fellows. Alarmed, Kindel quickly buzzed through the place, and found that there were still a few eggs that hadn't hatched, currently completely unattended. She didn't know much about caring for eggs, but she couldn't help using what little she did know to try to rectify the situation, even if it might mean someone would suspect she'd been there - one egg was getting cold, and another needed moisture, and she fixed this as best she could. _Why_ had these little, unhatched babies been left unattended? Never had Kindel heard of such a thing happening since the completion of the nursery - it was a crime, an atrocity. Those eggs were their future!

Unless…they had new plans for the future.

As this crossed her mind, Kindel shivered. She finished attending to the eggs, praying it would be enough to keep them healthy until someone else came back to care for them - she tried not to think ' _If they do_ ' - and moved on to the next section.

Only one more section besides the residential areas remained, and it was also where the pond was (and therefore right next to the kitchens): the library. Hearing the gentle gurgle of the spring while reading a book was a common pastime among dragonflies when they weren't working - it was so pleasant and relaxing. Nothing appeared different here on the surface tonight, but when Kindel entered the actual building where most of their books were kept (all but those restricted to the royal archives), she found a lot of volumes had been picked out of their shelves and strewn all over the place, most half open: war books. Books on weapons, armor, combat…

There was no doubt. The dragonfly city was preparing for war. But why now?

That done, Kindel could only return to the town square, in the hopes of discovering something new. All she found was a few dragonflies still eating; many had gone home early for some reason, and the relative few that remained were much more active in socializing than what Kindel had seen earlier, though they still spoke in hushed voices and ate as they talked. Sley was still nowhere to be seen, and neither, she realized, was her father. Odd…the reigning monarch was supposed to be the last to leave the dining hall, a sort of gesture to indicate him or her making sure that their people had been sufficiently cared for. With the greatly reduced crowd, however, Kindel was able to summon enough courage to hover close to one enthusiastically talking pair.

"…still can't believe King Sparc died," one was whispering. "The way he just dropped as Cynder the Selfish took his daughter away…"

"We _trusted_ her," the other agreed angrily. "I remember thinking she was all right for a dragon - even the king thought that! I'm worried…Do you think Princess Kindel is still alive?"

"I think she left of her own will," the first said hesitantly. "It looked like it to me, anyway. They're bondmates, so…" He shook his head. "I don't know, man. Cynder the Selfish has left a lot of people to die, past and present, but…I mean, she _did_ do it out of love for the Purple One - both times, even - so if Kindel means half as much to her as him, I'd say she's probably well taken care of."

"I hope so," sighed the second, quickly scooping up another few spoonfuls of berry soup from the bowl in his hand. "Can't believe Sley still wants to marry her - Cynder, I mean. The way she lied to us all, killed his father…"

"The legends that foretold she might return said that she and the Purple One were _both_ supposed to return, to bring back the old age of dragons," the first one mused; "maybe Sley thinks he can supersede the Purple One somehow."

"You think?" the second asked, surprised. "I know his plan to become a dragon is huge, but…wow, that'd be pretty ambitious."

"He's the best king we could have gotten," the first said in agreement. "He'll fix everything…too bad his father won't live to see it."

"He's with Queen Kelsey now," the second said somberly. "I really hope they're together…I remember seeing their wedding when I was still a hatchling - they were crazy in love. It was beautiful, I even thought so as a kid."

"Yeah…" the first agreed with a sigh.

Kindel couldn't bear to hear any more. With her cloak of Shadow muffling the sound of her wings, she buzzed away, across the city and back out to where Cynder waited. Her little pink eyes stung, and Cynder noticed her bondmate's emotions right away.

"What happened?" Cynder asked worriedly, keeping a low voice.

The white dragonfly took a steadying breath, then told Cynder everything.


	23. Chapter 23

The fact that the dragonflies were preparing for war was, in and of itself, distressing news - if they had hoped to ever show themselves in the city again before Sley's defeat, that hope was gone. Naturally, however, Kindel couldn't stop thinking about her father, shedding many tears.

"I never even said goodbye," she sniffled to Cynder. "I didn't even look at him when I grabbed the ring and went to you so we could leave together. It's my fault…I killed him…"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Cynder said darkly. "From the sounds of things, your father's death has been very advantageous to Sley."

"Wh-? No!" Kindel cried, so loudly that Cynder momentarily feared being heard. "No," Kindel repeated, more quietly, "Sley wouldn't kill our dad! I know he's capable of…awful things, but he's not _that_ evil! Besides, he couldn't have - if dad just…just dropped the moment we left, Sley couldn't have done it, he was busy trying to recover from what you did."

Cynder sighed, but had no argument, only a bad feeling. "One way or another, your dad is with your mom now," she said consolingly. "I'm sure he's happy, wherever he is. It's just up to us to make sure his son doesn't destroy the world."

Before her bondmate even spoke, Cynder felt Kindel's resolve wavering - it had never been all that strong to begin with, given that their goal was to stop and possibly kill her brother, but now, she truly wanted nothing more than to go back home and trust that Sley wouldn't do anything too horrible.

"I know you don't want to do this," she told the white dragonfly softly, "but there's no choice now. We can't go back - even you can't go back, you're my bondmate, they'd never just let you return. Things will never be like they were…I wish they could be too," she admitted. "Living with all of you, as part of a community, with friends…it was wonderful. But…it's over. Sley's gotten too far in his plans - if we don't act, there's no telling how much devastation he'll cause, and we can't go back even if we tried. You know that."

"I do," Kindel sighed, "but I don't like it."

"Neither do I," Cynder told her, "but it's what we have to do. Sometimes there is no good answer; we can only follow our hearts and try to do what's right. That's…why I waited for Spyro. Neither choice was one I wanted, but…I had to choose, so I did, going by what I believed in most."

"You did, didn't you," Kindel said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Stay in your own time and have the eggs of some other dragon, and never see Spyro again, him never living a full life…or spend millions of years trapped in a crystal, waiting while the whole world changed and evolved, ready to spend your life in an era completely unlike yours, just to bring him back and be with him."

"Yeah, that's…pretty much what my choices were," Cynder said, unable to withhold a small chuckle. "And…well, maybe the one I chose wasn't the best one for the world…but, after all the time I've spent here, living my life and thinking things through, I've decided that I don't regret it. Even if I did, I can't go back and change it, but I don't - I did what was right for me, and for him, and the bad things that happened because of it can be fixed now that I'm here." She turned her emerald eyes to the wall of trees. "But only if we stop Sley."

Her bondmate nodded sadly. "I know," she said, and Cynder felt the little bug's resolve steadying again, as much as it could.

"Well, what we need to do now is come up with a plan," Cynder said. "We can't just waltz back in, we'll have to sneak." She thought for a minute. "Is there…some way I could get to the crystal? I can use Shadow to get through tight spaces, and…the cave seemed pretty big, since the crystal is too."

"It _is_ big," Kindel confirmed. "Massive, even. It took a long time to dig the cavern out, never mind building the palace over it. If you could get in somehow, I'm sure you could fit, but…how would you go in? The only way is through the palace, and…can you really squeeze through there with Shadow?"

"I can try," Cynder responded uncertainly. "But…maybe I should practice a bit first. We'll only have one shot at this."

So she did, spending the rest of the night practicing turning herself into a wisp of black smoke. She wasn't quite able to pull it off at first, it took hours, but by the time morning came, she knew she could do it.

"Alright," she said softly. "Let's go, now, before people start getting up."

"I'm right behind you," Kindel told her.

Together, they slipped inside. Unfortunately, dragonflies were rousing even earlier than usual, around the time Cynder used to get up - the war preparations had everyone excited, and Cynder wondered if any of them had actually gotten a good night's sleep. A light shroud of Shadow over the white dragonfly beside her was all it took to keep them hidden, provided they darted between buildings and tree trunk supports. There were a couple of close calls, but the two of them finally made it inside.

The palace was beautiful, Cynder had to admit, though she didn't have time to sightsee - if only it were a few dozen times larger, it would be a wonderful place to live even by dragon standards. In here, there was no one around but the one they sought, so Cynder removed Kindel's shroud; visible now, the glowing white bug led the wisp of darkness that was Cynder through the palace, down several corridors and staircases, until they reached the cavern.

It was just like Cynder remembered from her dream. Releasing her use of Shadow, she manifested fully in the vast underground room for the first time. The golden crystal lit up the entire area, a beautiful shining beacon of dragon magic. Cynder couldn't help but feel chills despite herself - this was a concentrated chunk of a power beyond all reckoning, and though she had ties to it, she would never control or even understand it. No one could…not even Sley.

Slowly, reverently, she approached the glowing lump. It was only the size of the strength and magic crystals she and Spyro had seen during their time chained together, but somehow, it _felt_ so much bigger. As she neared it, she saw some jagged craters in the stone, and remembered what Kindel had said about the many tiny fragments embedded in sticks she'd seen in the armory. When she was close enough to reach out and touch it, she had to stop.

"Wow," she breathed. "I…I could never have imagined anything like it. I can feel it radiating warm energy, like sunlight…" She flexed her wings. It did indeed feel like sunlight, a sensation she'd all but forgotten since moving into the dark forest. And yet, it wasn't external warmth, like true sunlight - it felt more like sunlight was shining _through_ her scales, and into her very soul.

Nodding, Kindel buzzed over to the crystal. "We've always felt it," she told Cynder. "We never understood why, but we've always felt its power, as if calling to us. I guess…it sort of was, in a way. We're dragon magic, and it's dragon magic…we're pretty similar to it."

"There's no telling the power stored here," Cynder said, still somewhat breathless. "All the power leftover from the great dragons of old, condensed and crystallized…" She shook her head slightly. "It's unfathomable."

"Hmm." Kindel looked around, then turned to Cynder. "Sley isn't here," she noted. "Even if he was behind the crystal, he would have heard us by now."

"Yes," Cynder agreed, refocusing on the task at hand. "But there's no reason he'd be anywhere else…let's look around and see what we might be able to discover about whatever he's been doing down here."

The two of them split up and started looking. Cynder took a closer look at the base, and saw that it had indeed been broken off of a rock in the ground and relocated, the jagged edges on the bottom that were almost completely buried made that very obvious. Around the back, where she'd dreamed meeting Sley that one time, Cynder expected to find some sort of clue, but after scrounging the entire cave, both dragoness and dragonfly agreed that there was nothing here.

"I feel like we're missing something," Cynder commented to her bondmate. "Like…like there's something right in front of us that we aren't seeing. But I've looked so hard at everyth…"

Then she saw it, and froze. Her heart thumped in her chest, ice flowing through her veins, as she slowly registered exactly what she was seeing.

"What is it?" Kindel asked, following Cynder's eyes and not finding it. Those emerald eyes were fixed directly on the crystal, but apart from that, she couldn't tell…

And then she, too, saw what Cynder saw, and just about dropped out of the air. With a huge gasp, her hands flew to her mouth, and she hovered back a few inches in shock.

"Cynder," she managed, "are you seeing…what I'm seeing?"

"Yeah," Cynder replied faintly, still staring, "I am."

Sley was inside the crystal. He was so small, and the crystal's glow far surpassed his own, so he was barely a little maroon spot deep in the glowing lump, but the more they looked, the more certain they became that he was there.

Finally managing to move a muscle, Cynder crept forward, until her snout was almost touching the crystal, though she was careful to keep at least a little bit of distance. The maroon dragonfly was curled in on himself, as if in a cocoon; it was hard to tell, but his face appeared to be screwed up in concentration, much as hers had been when she was frozen in time.

"What do we do?" Cynder breathed.

"I don't know," Kindel replied. "I don't…I don't know."

For a minute, all was still.

"I don't want to touch it," Cynder finally told her bondmate, not tearing her eyes away from the creature in the solid magic. "I really don't want to touch it. I…I'm scared, Kin."

"I'm right behind you," was all Kindel could say for comfort, buzzing over to put a tiny hand on Cynder's cheek. "We're in this together."

Taking a long, deep, steadying breath, and failing to draw any strength, Cynder forced herself to raise a forepaw. At first, she used her right hand, but then she put it back down and lifted her left instead - being able to look at her ring gave her a tiny bit of courage. The purple gem sparkled magenta in the yellow light, but it was still purple, still her mark of being Spyro's wife. Spyro could do this…and so could she.

Thus filled with determination, Cynder set her foot down, turned around, raised her tail, and struck the crystal with the flame-shaped silver blade.

Back during their final hours in the old days, crystals like this had taken some persuading to smash. This, however, almost seemed like it had been waiting for a chance to break apart, as cracks immediately appeared along the surface from where the blow landed, blinding golden light shining through them. They spread, and the whole crystal began to shake.

Both Cynder and Kindel backed up. "I don't think you should have done that," Kindel murmured.

"Yeah," Cynder managed.

The light from the cracks that now spiderwebbed across the entire surface grew brighter, and brighter, so bright it was more white than yellow; Cynder raised a wing to try to shield her closed eyes, and Kindel lifted a hand to do the same, but to little avail. A whine began to pierce the air, growing louder and louder…

"We should get out of here!" Cynder called over the sound.

"Right behind you!" Kindel shouted back.

Without another moment's hesitation, they both turned and fled, Cynder barely managing to turn herself into a wisp of Shadow in time to actually escape the space. The shaking spread through the ground, the whole palace was vibrating, tiny furniture toppling and crashing all around; Cynder and Kindel had to dodge all sorts of falling furnishings. Then they made it out, and just in time, as an explosion erupted behind them, the light blasting them both several feet before they tumbled to the ground in full view of all the dragonflies in the city. Even the dragonflies didn't notice, however, because the explosion was still happening. Lifting her head, Cynder forced herself to look into the light, blinding as it was, trying to make out a shape. At first, there was nothing. Then, faintly, getting stronger, a horrible, evil laugh began to ring out from the maelstrom of power. It sounded so, so very much darker than even Malefor's laugh had, and Cynder couldn't help curling up in fear.

 _Fear_.

"A-ha-ha-ha-ha- _ha_!" came the laughter, and blinding light filled the space as the sound of a blast deafened everyone. Then, light and sound slowly faded, and as they did, the form of a great dragon became visible through the glare.

He'd done it. Somehow, Sley had become a dragon.


	24. Chapter 24

Enormous, outstretched wings framed the figure of the beast that was reared on its hind legs as the light slowly died down. When at last it was gone, the maroon monster gracefully dropped to all fours and folded his wings. He was a dark, rich red, much darker than Rofelam had been - the color of Fear. His smooth, slightly twisted black horns were like obsidian and razor-sharp, and odd, stringy fringes covered his shoulders, like wisps of the forbidden. The tail was a three-pronged spear, three viciously sharp points curling around an oval space like outstretched claws. Slowly, he opened his Shadow-colored eyes, and the first thing they found was Cynder.

"Thank you, o dragoness of the shadows," he said, his voice even deeper and richer than before due to his size, but still unmistakable. "That was all I needed: the touch of a dragon of old." He bared his teeth in a wicked approximation of a smile. "I learned the trick from our creator, Malefor - the Purple One's presence in his mountain gave him a foothold through which he could come back to life, and so too did the presence of a dragon from the Great Era give me a link to dragonhood, and make the transformation possible." Mighty wings flared out in a shining, red-brown curtain, as he turned to address the entire city. "O, my people!" he declared. "It is I, your king, Sley! With the help of my bride-to-be, I have become that from which we were all made!"

"That's right," Cynder heard someone gasp. "How could I have forgotten? We were made from the castoff of dragon magic!"

Murmurs swept through the gathered crowd as the memory spell broke and they all recalled their origins. While they were distracted, Cynder forced herself to her feet, and lifted her head to meet Sley's gaze. The moment their eyes locked again, however, she froze in terror. _I failed,_ she thought. _I came here to stop him and I failed. He has all the power of a full-grown dragon of old now…only because of me. I did this. Everything he's going to do now, it's all because of me…it's my fault…_

Malicious laughter rumbled from the mighty beast, and Cynder knew he knew what she was thinking. Of course he did. He had all the power of the dragons now…she was just a-

"Cynder." A faint whisper beside her head, followed by a nudge against one of the spikes that jutted from under her cheeks to frame her face, broke her train of thought. "Snap out of it."

Barely able to tear her gaze away from the monster, Cynder turned to look at her bondmate. Emerald eyes met fuchsia, and the black dragoness was surprised to see the steely resolve in the little bug's expression.

"He's not my brother anymore," she told Cynder. "Do what you have to do."

"I don't know if I can," Cynder said faintly.

"You can," Kindel told her with certainty. "He may have all kinds of dragon powers, but he's only had them for about a minute - he's not used to his new body, he can't be. You've grown up inside the body of a dragon, you know how to use it, and how to use your powers."

"But…he's been studying dragon anatomy and physiology for years," Cynder said slowly. "And…this is why. He's been preparing for this for a long time."

"Being prepared for something and actually experiencing it are not the same thing," Kindel pointed out. She gave her partner another push on the neck spike. "Go. Fight him. I'm right here, adding my strength to yours - we're in this together, sister. As the Purple One and his brother have fought together, so shall we."

It was the mention of Spyro that got Cynder's full attention. Clenching her talons, she nodded. "You're right," she said. "It's up to us. A lot of people are counting on us, whether they know it or not…we have to protect the world."

Then, Kindel did something unexpected: She buzzed up into the air and shouted, "Hey!"

All the dragonflies looked at her; whispers of "Princess Kindel" hissed through the city.

"You know why you forgot where we came from?" Kindel called out. "It's because _he_ …" She pointed a finger at her transformed brother. "…cast a memory spell so we'd all forget!"

Eyes turned towards Sley, some - would wonders never cease? - almost accusing.

But Sley didn't falter; he bowed his head slightly in admission. "I did," he confessed. "I needed to be able to make my studies in peace."

"Meaning you couldn't afford for anyone to guess what you were up to and get in your way!" Kindel spat.

"Oh, my dear sister," Sley purred, turning those cold, black eyes on his only remaining family member. "I was only taking a precaution, that was all. Many people fear what they don't understand, and I simply needed as much privacy as possible. You know that, don't you? Being a dragon's bondmate isn't as awful as we all believed, is it? No, you quite like it. But would you have thought so before it actually happened? Of course not. So too did I worry people would fear this achievement before it came to be. But now, all is done."

"You used _dragon magic_ on us?" asked an almost angry voice from the crowd. "You used dragon magic to mess with our minds?"

"Not directly, not directly," Sley said smoothly, turning in the general direction of whoever had spoken. "It was the memory itself I cast the spell on, not your minds. And it was a very touchy spell…anyone who didn't fit into the exact parameters I worked into the magic eluded it - as it turns out, one person in the world did. But that doesn't matter anymore." He spread his wings again. "Here I am, before you all, a true dragon. With this power, we shall free our enslaved kin. First, my good people, allow me to grant you a gift you've all longed for: the light of the sun!"

Opening his jaws, Sley turned his face upwards, and unleashed a terrible Siren Scream. The treetop ceiling, held up by a thin network of branches, was blasted right off and high into the sky, and morning sun poured into the entire clearing. Cries of delight and alarm at the unfamiliar light filled the city, as dragonflies tried to both shield their eyes and look directly at the fabled sun. Even Sley stretched tremendously under the warm, golden rays - he, too, had never experienced sunlight, Cynder realized. That realization was enough to give her a bit of strength - Kindel was right, he may have obtained power beyond imagining, but he was a dragonfly in a dragon's body, about as capable of using it as a three-year-old whelpling. Well, okay, maybe a bit older, she conceded to herself, given how well he'd wielded Fear just now, but still, it was an unfamiliar form, and he wasn't used to it. He was getting more used to it with every moment, though; the sooner she acted, the better.

"You liar!" she shouted, getting the dragonflies' attention even in the sunlight. "You cast another spell on all of them to control their minds so that they'd admire you! You told me so yourself! Don't pretend to act like you've ever cared about their thoughts or feelings!"

She wasn't expecting anyone to listen, but to her surprise, this accusation brought on more mutters, not all of which sounded indignant. Somehow, for some reason, they were listening to her. But why?

What was even more surprising was that Sley also appeared alarmed at the city's reaction - the moment of shock that flickered in his eyes felt like a tremendous victory to Cynder. "You're mistaken," he managed smoothly, almost without missing a beat; "the people look up to me for all the work I've done for our people, to end our exile in this forsaken forest." He slowly swept his gaze across the crowd of dragonflies, so that each one almost felt like he'd made contact directly with them. "Today is the end of our exile. See the sky, my people! Feel the warmth of the sun, taste the clean and wild air, and rise!" His might wings expanded again, and he flapped them, once, twice, gusts shaking the entire city…

The words were enough, and the dragonflies all began to rise into the sky with him. After sharing a glance, Cynder and Kindel followed suit. Sheer wonder shone from the face of every dragonfly as they experienced the outside world for the first time - and again, even Sley seemed moved by this moment. Cynder hoped Kindel didn't notice, lest she start to reconsider her decision that ending Sley would be best. But _did_ it mean anything…?

After a moment, the two bondmates noticed that all the parents in the city were holding their young if the children were too weak to fly on their own; literally every dragonfly in the city was leaving it, all at once. A flash of alarm flitted between their bond from Kindel to Cynder, and the dragoness knew the white dragonfly was thinking of the four eggs she'd seen the previous night. However, she herself was alarmed by something else: Sley didn't seem to have any trouble flying as a dragon - his wings and tail moved in perfect sync, as though he'd been doing it for decades. He seemed more like the way she had been when she'd been forced into an adult body the moment she hatched - unnatural, but somehow finding that everything came naturally on its own.

All _of the remains of the dragons of old were in that crystal,_ she realized. _Not just the magic, not even just the form, but the knowledge and strength and skill. The Ancestors themselves were in that crystal, in a way. But…he still doesn't know what the outside world feels like, how the winds above the clouds shift and change, how the sun reflects off of dragon scales, how the air tastes, how the world looks when bathed in sunlight. I can use_ that _against him._

"I'm with you, sister," said a quiet voice in Cynder's ear.

"Maybe," she murmured back, trying to make herself heard above the wind without letting anyone else hear her. "But they aren't. If I destroy him now, they'll destroy me."

"Not with me protecting you!" Kindel hissed.

"We can't count on that," Cynder said, shaking her head slightly. "We have to wait for a better moment. If you're with me, follow my lead."

"I'm with you," Kindel repeated firmly.

They joined the veritable cloud of dragonflies that were now among the clouds, babies reaching out their little hands and marveling at the cold wisps that slipped through their fingers. The cold, the wet, the dew forming on dragonfly wings, caused some alarm at first, but they soon realized that their wings buzzed fast enough to flick the water off before it caused problems.

"We are free!" Sley called over the roar of the wind that filled the air this high up. "No longer must we fight for our survival! Let us all find our places in the world!"

It was difficult to hear, but a lot of the dragonflies were murmuring to each other something that distinctly sounded like "He did it." Cynder put them out of her mind and kept her eyes on Sley. He still needed her to be his wife in order for his dream to be complete; whatever he was going to do to that end, she had to be ready.

Sley looked at her, a gleam in his black eyes. But he didn't speak; instead, he performed a perfect midair u-turn and started flying through the sky. The dragonflies noticed and started to follow, but he was going too fast for the bugs to keep up, and they quickly lost him. If they felt abandoned by the gesture, whatever Sley was up to was more important. Using their bond as well as her voice, Cynder spoke to Kindel.

"We have to stop him."

The little white bug perched in her place on Cynder's horns, and Cynder beat her wings and darted after the maroon monster.

Sun on her scales, cool wind in her wings, and a dragonfly perched on her head - the chase felt eerily similar to that nightmare Sley had tried to fill her mind with. In this case, though, she kept her emerald eyes on her target, the dark red creature hurtling through the air. He was strong, but she was fast, sleek as female dragons of old were meant to be - with enough work, she could eventually catch up to him. To push herself even faster, she summoned her communion with Wind, the element that dominated the sky, and a tailwind blew straight into her outstretched wings, pushing her faster than any living creature, dragon or otherwise, was meant to go. She had never tried to use her element like this before, but Sley's teachings had helped her connect with it so it could be used in as many ways as she could imagine. Luckily, the wind pushed Kindel too, so she could hold on without her tiny arms getting ripped off of her body and leaving her essentially as a modern dragonfly.

Like a sparrow racing an eagle, Cynder only just barely managed to pass keeping pace with Sley by using all her strength. Whether or not he knew she was chasing him was something she didn't bother to think about; she could only hope he did, because if he didn't, and realized she was, she'd lose him.

The Dragon Kingdoms were far, far from the dark forest - Cynder had, after all, taken days to get there. She'd been wandering, though; the direct path was only a few hours, less if flying at full speed. It took a little while before she recognized the land she was flying over, but when she did, she could only count down in her mind the remaining landmarks between there and the Dragon Realms.

 _Wind. Wind! Come on, Wind, blow harder!_ she thought. _Blow me faster, stop him, make a headwind on him, a tailwind for me…_ A confused gust made her falter, and she thought she had lost it. Then, somehow, she felt herself melt into the air. Connecting with Wind on a deeper level than even Sley knew a dragon could, she turned the currents into a loop, pulling her and Sley towards a midpoint. Vaguely registering an alarmed cry, Cynder pulled, and the next thing she knew, she had run headlong into the massive dragon.

Many, many years ago, she had tackled a grown red dragon to the ground - she had been in adult form back then, but today, her target didn't know how to navigate natural air currents, let alone those controlled by an opposing dragon. She kept him busy, mindlessly attacking whatever piece of him she could reach, aiming for the wings and neck, and they plummeted. With a frantic scramble, Cynder put herself on top, just in time for them to crash into some trees. After that, it was only a matter of holding on until they hit the ground.

 _Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! CRASH!_

Branches and leaves came pouring down around them; Sley was crumpled in a heap on the mossy floor, and Cynder was digging her talons into his chest. For a moment, the only audible sound was the remaining falling debris; then, Sley's heavy breathing dominated the silence.

"You're…amazing," he panted at last. "You've…found a way to…use your element…beyond what I thought a dragon could do." His head swiveled up to look at the little black dragoness perched on top of him. "You are incredible, Cynder, my queen. You continue to exceed all my wildest hopes."

"I'm not your queen," she spat. "I'm Spyro's wife, we're united in a bond blessed by the Chronicler himself - you can't change that."

Sley's tail, unexpectedly strong, swatted her away, and she tumbled to the soft ground. "Only so long as your husband is alive," the new dragon said, rolling over and pushing himself to his feet. "Once he's dead, you'll be mine."

"You can't expect to kill him," Cynder said, also getting to her feet. "He's the Purple One, the most powerful dragon in the world."

"No," Sley chuckled, "he's a whelpling. _I_ am the most powerful dragon in the world."

"You're not a purple dragon," she sneered. "Even a young purple dragon has powers beyond any other dragon the world has ever seen!"

"Then I'll just need to find an advantage," Sley replied smoothly. "If he thinks you're in danger, he'll surrender, surely. Or, you could distract him, and I can get him from behind. Please, dear Cynder, won't you join me?"

"Never!" she snarled.

He sighed. "You really have to be difficult, don't you?" he said mock-sadly. "Well, you'll kneel before me in the end…for now, I need you out of my way."

Quicker than lightning, he whirled around and lashed his tail at the young dragoness, perfectly stabbing her with the three-pronged tip. Cynder had taken hits before, but though she was pushed, the wound didn't manifest; instead, she heard a little scream from behind her head. Alarmed, Cynder jumped back, away from Sley.

"Stop!" she shouted. "You're hurting Kindel!"

"Kindel?" the giant maroon beast asked, as though he didn't know the name.

"Your _sister_ ," Cynder said pointedly. As she spoke, a glowing creature buzzed out from behind her head. Instead of white, though, the dragonfly was pale pink, paler than the color of her eyes but still distinctly rosy. "Dragonflies with bondmates take hits for their partners; each hit changes the color of the dragonfly, ticking down to nothingness. Hit me two more times, and your sister dies."

Kindel looked silently at her transformed brother, pink eyes holding black, and for a few moments, all was still. Then, the red dragon spoke.

"My dear sister," he said softly. "You are the only family I have left, and family is the thing we've always valued most. But…times are changing, and what I'm doing is far more important than you." He bowed his head. "Forgive me, dear sister, but if I'm to succeed, I must incapacitate your bondmate, and if doing that means killing you…so be it."

"You're a monster," Kindel said softly.

"Forgive me," Sley repeated. Then he reared back his head, opened his jaws, and blasted dragoness and bondmate with a deafening Siren Scream. Kindel was blown back, and she smacked into Cynder's chest, even as she took another hit and turned a darker shade of pink, her glow dimming like a dying ember.

"Kin," Cynder murmured, trying to pull her friend away from the danger.

"I'm okay," Kindel groaned, and she did indeed manage to rise back into the air. "I can take more than one hit - I'm not like your dragonflies, I'm strong. And I can help you fight, too."

"Are you sure?" Cynder asked, folding her wings to shield herself and the fading bug from further elemental attacks. "You want to fight him?"

"He's not my brother anymore," was all Kindel had to say.

Glancing up just in time, Cynder made a leaping dodge to avoid a swipe of Sley's claws, Kindel catching hold of one of her wing talons to stay close. Before the dragoness could even orient herself to fight back, her bondmate opened her tiny mouth and spat out pellets of white light. They hit the giant dragon with a _Pop! Pop! Pop!_ Though clearly all but unharmed by this, Sley's face twisted in surprise, his focus momentarily shattered. It was all Cynder needed to focus her own resolve, let her battle instincts and the training of the first part of her life take over. She had been trained at birth to fight dragons, to kill dragons, powerful dragons of old that had lived centuries and mastered the elements. Without Malefor's power, she couldn't use fire anymore, but she had an equivalent: Shadow fire. Black flames spouted from her mouth and cascaded over Sley's body, smothering his ability to breathe; he twitched, and twisted around, and broke free, but he was hurt. The battle had begun.

Kindel didn't need to stay close to Cynder, so she flew out of reach, spitting pellets of light at Sley whenever she had a clear shot while her bondmate did most of the fighting. One thing Sley had said was true: Despite her heart, Cynder was built to fight. Horns and tail and claws and wings and jaws, Shadow and Poison and Wind and Fear - she was the Queen of Conquer, once the most feared creature in the world, now with extra power that came with full understanding of who and what she was - understanding that had come, in part, from Sley's teachings.

Meanwhile, Sley threw his weight around, knocking the tiny dragoness to and fro. He was strong, built as a full-grown dragon of old, and he was more adept at using Fear than any dragon had ever been, including Cynder or even Malefor. His whole life had been spent learning and preparing for this, and though he'd never been able to practice any of it before, he'd memorized everything there was to know about being a dragon.

Trees were knocked down, moss was ripped and shredded, and the roars of two dragons shook the earth. Even Cynder had never fought so hard in her life. The Guardians of old were weak compared to Sley, and she had her small size to hinder her now. Instead of deterring her, though, she tried to use her stature to her advantage, getting under Sley where he couldn't see or reach her easily and slashing at his belly. To counter this, he was able to conjure a Fear aura, something that shook her and weakened her whenever she got too close to him. Whenever he managed to hit her, she wasn't weakened, the blow instead being transferred through her bond for Kindel to take instead. As the bug had suspected, Kindel's body didn't die after one more blow, instead taking many, more than any dragonfly bondmate ever had. Her color faded from pink, to magenta, to bright red, to dingy red, to red-brown, to brown, to dark brown, to ebony, her body finally no longer giving off light. Then, when Sley knocked Cynder against a tree, Kindel fragmented, her spirit tied helplessly to Cynder, unable to do any more.

"Kindel!" Cynder cried, devastated. Surprisingly, Sley paused for a minute, too, and everything fell still, both dragons breathing hard.

Finally, Cynder looked at Sley.

"You killed your sister," she growled. "What kind of monster are you? How can you possibly still believe in what you're doing?"

"Tragic though it may be, my sister was collateral damage," Sley panted in reply. "Besides, she'll be back - her spirit is still tied to you, and she is not gone so long as you're alive, yes? After I incapacitate you and kill the dragons, when we get married, we'll revive her. Together."

"Can you even hear yourself?!" Cynder shouted, her emerald eyes stinging. "Don't you understand? I hate you! I'll never stand beside you, no matter what you do or say - I'd rather die!"

"You'll have no choice," he said smugly. His Shadow-colored eyes narrowed. "Tell me, little dragoness," he sneered, "what do you fear, more than anything else?"

Cynder blinked, surprised at the question. Those black, bottomless eyes seemed to grow, until they engulfed her, drowning her in darkness. What did she fear?

She blinked again, and suddenly, she was standing beside a massive dragon - not Sley, but a purple creature.

Malefor.

"You have done so well, my pet," the Dark Master said, his distorted voice almost too deep to understand. "You've done as I asked, followed me faithfully. Together, you and I will rebuild the world."

Confused, she looked around; desolation surrounded her. They were on empty, barren dirt, dead saplings poking desperately out of the ground here and there. It was misty, but she could see the remains of a battlefield in front of her. As she focused, the mist cleared a bit, and she was able to make out the forms of dead dragons, thousands upon thousands of dead dragons.

"Wh…What?" she choked. "How…?"

The Dark Master laughed. "Oh, you've been having so much fun in that imaginary world of yours, haven't you?" he said teasingly. "What did you imagine this time? A dragonfly friend? A world where you were happy? Oh no no, wait, let me guess: You were married to Spyro?"

"Married to…" She looked down at her claws; her ring was gone. Her amulet, too, no longer hung around her neck. The pieces started to come together, and a serpent coiled around her lungs, constricting her breathing; she looked up at Malefor. "Where is Spyro?" she asked.

"You don't remember? It's amusing how much you love to dream," Malefor said. "You killed him, remember? When you two came up to my castle, I reminded you of who you were, and you destroyed him. The Destroyer ended the world, and all the dragons that survived the fire gathered together to kill me; you helped me kill all of them, too. And now…now we put the pieces back together, and create a new world." Wicked laughter rumbled from his throat.

"N…No…" she gasped. "That's not…that's not what happened. Spyro stopped you, and then I was frozen for five million years, and then he came back, and brought me back, and you came back, and we killed you again, and now we're…"

"Same old fantasy," Malefor taunted. "Honestly, Cynder, you spend so much time in your head that I'm starting to worry about you." He nudged the side of her head with his snout. "Wake up," he murmured. "I'm sure it's a pretty dream, about what might have happened if you had chosen differently, but _this_ is the real world, the world you _did_ choose. You're my consort now; you and I will create a new world, which we will rule as gods. It's over! The hard part is done. Now, everything is ours."

"No." Cynder shied away from the purple monster. "No, this isn't real. Sley!" she shouted to the sky. "Sley! I know you're listening! Let me out of here!"

"Who is Sley?" Malefor asked, amused. "You've never mentioned that imaginary friend before."

" _Stop it_!" she shouted, her eyes misting over. "Sley, stop it! I know this isn't real! I _know_ it isn't! You can't fool me!"

For the first time, Malefor's gaze became one of genuine concern. "I knew I shouldn't have let you parade in that imaginary world like this so deeply," he murmured, walking over to her again. "You're losing your mind, Cynder. Look around you! We just won the final battle! _This_ is real! There is no Sley, whoever that's supposed to be. Snap out of it, now!"

"N…no…o…" she choked, tears streaming down her cheeks. "No…It can't be…It _can't_ be…I would never… _No_!" With that, she broke down, sobbing.

"Oh, Cynder," Malefor murmured, putting his snout close to her head. "Did you really believe any of that idealistic nonsense? You've gone deep into that dream before, but I didn't think you believed in it. This can be, and it is. This is what you chose. Here…" He raised a claw and put it on her shoulder; it was solid, and real, his talons scraping her black scales. "Do you feel me? This is real. _I'm_ real. I have always been, and I will always be. And you're with me."

"Why…" She looked up at him. "Why are you comforting me?" she hiccuped. "You've never comforted me…You never comfort anyone. The weak are left behind, the strong are given their reward, that's what you always taught me."

"You're starting to remember, then?" he asked, removing his paw. "Cynder, your strength is undeniable, and confusion is not weakness. I was confused, once, and am not ashamed. You've confused yourself, that's all; I'm just straightening things out for you."

With each passing moment, the surrounding world became more real, and the one with Sley and Kindel and Spyro faded in her mind, like a lingering dream. Though she tried to cling to it, it slowly slipped from her grasp, like water pouring through her claws. Soon, all she could clearly remember was one question: _What do you fear, more than anything else?_

 _But_ this _is what I fear,_ she thought desperately. _This is the_ last _thing I want! And I've…I've always been afraid that my happy ending with Spyro was all a dream. I have,_ she realized. _Part of me has always wondered if any of that was ever real, or if I made it up to make myself feel better._ The world wavered; she closed her eyes.

"You can close your eyes, Cynder, but when you open them, I'll still be here," said Malefor's voice. "It's time you stop dreaming."

 _It's not true,_ she told herself. _This is my darkest nightmare, but it's not real. It's too horrible to be real._

"Come now, Cynder, stop it. Don't go hiding in that dream world again, stay here with me. Your imagination won't change anything in the real world."

 _I'm not in a desolate wasteland after the end of the world. I'm in a forest, fighting to keep Sley from killing the dragons, dragons that have started to rebuild after Spyro and I defeated Malefor together. We defeated him again, months ago, once and for all; he's gone. Spyro is the love of my life, and I belong with him. My ring…_ A stinging sensation began to fester on the center claw of her left forepaw. _We're married…_

"Wake up, Cynder. Don't go back to your dream. We have a world to rebuild in our image."

 _My amulet…_ Weight began to press down on her hackles, and a feeling of warmth blossomed over her chest.

"Don't do it, Cynder. Stay with me."

" _No_!"

Something snapped, and Cynder opened her eyes to find herself back in the forest, facing down Sley. The maroon dragon snarled and shook his head.

"You should have stayed there!" he snarled. "You don't want to rule? You don't want to be a god? Fine! I'll make my own queen, using my own powers. You're useless to me!"

At least it had finally gotten through to him just who Cynder was and what she wanted in life; but now, he was fighting, not to incapacitate, but to kill. He hurtled at her, all his weight behind his claws as he reached out to slash her to ribbons. Shaking off the last remnants of her Fear-induced nightmare, Cynder lunged in a dodge, then turned and swiped her tail at his hind leg. In return, his tail swept across her face, knocking her all the way across the clearing their fight had made and into a tree - and now, without a dragonfly bondmate, she took the full force of the blow. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, but her shield was gone, and there was only her own strength now.

On the other hand, she'd fought Malefor with only her own strength, Spyro by her side, and Sley had been taking a beating for a while already without a bondmate to help him. Ultimately, they were evenly matched. With not just her life, but everything she lived for, on the line, Cynder dug in and put all her strength behind her blows. Dragons have limits as to how much of their elemental power they can use at a time, but Sley was made of dragon magic, and Cynder discovered that she could restore her magic reserves by hitting him, as if he were a green crystal. Fear, however, wasn't an element she could use - she tried, attempted to use the most powerful Phantom Fright she could muster to slow him down, but he absorbed it. This was one thing she wasn't sure anyone had ever figured out: How to fight a dragon who's a master of the same element as their opponent. When Malefor had returned, Fear had been the one element he didn't use in the elemental storm he summoned, which had allowed Spyro's fire to get through by merging with her element. Now, she had no means to get it through. Wind was all but useless against creatures more than ten times her size, as well. Shadow and Poison - the element of her color, and the element she connected with most personally - were the only weapons she could use.

The battle raged on; Sley's determination seemed endless, taking blow after blow with little indication of slowing down. Continuing was all Cynder could do, but as she herself began to wear out, she started to fear that it was hopeless. Fear was her enemy, though, and she fought on…and at last, with one final airborne lash of her tail, Sley fell to his knees, his wings collapsing to the ground.

Cynder flapped over to face him, then dropped to the ground and met his eyes without a word.

"This…isn't…over," he gasped, struggling to rise, but to no avail - his body simply couldn't do it.

"It's over, Sley," Cynder said, still catching her own breath. "You're done. I won't let you destroy the Dragon Kingdoms, and you can't beat me."

Sley threw his gigantic head back and roared with fury. His conquerer made no move in response, knowing he was defeated and powerless to do anything more.

"Why?" he snarled, lowering his head again, even as his neck started to give out. "Why do you hate me so? I had a vision, Cynder! A world to conquer and make my own, one of unity and peace! All I wanted was to free my kind, and make sure nothing like our exile ever happened again! Why do you insist on stopping me?"

"Because your goals involved destruction," Cynder replied. "You don't have a right to destroy other people, other lives. It doesn't matter what justice you might think you deserve, the dragons of today have nothing to do with you; killing them would be evil. Killing Spyro, especially, is something even your people couldn't get behind, I'm sure."

"But they _owe_ us!" he snapped. "We were-"

"Made a part of the dragon worlds of your own free will," Cynder cut in smoothly. "The dragonflies chose to enter the pact. And really, Sley, was the result so bad?" She took a step forward and made a gesture back in the direction from which they'd come. "Your people built an entire community in the darkest place in the world. Despite all odds, you found your way, and created a haven of peace and happiness. It wasn't ideal, but you did the best with what you had, and honestly, I don't think any of the dragons back home will ever believe what you created. And…the dragons did the best with what they had, too, and so did the dragonflies who were bound in the pact. I mean, they bred, didn't they? They lived on, intelligent enough, accepting their new existence and becoming friends with the dragons. Nowadays, the day a young dragon gets his or her own dragonfly bondmate is a day of celebration, an entire festival is held in the honor of the unity of the two species - a happy day for both dragons and dragonflies. Everyone finds happiness in what they have."

"It was your fault," he pointed out.

"It was," she admitted, nodding. "I didn't mean for it to happen, I didn't know I was the last female dragon…but yes, I made a choice that led to a lot of problems. But, again, everyone I left behind did the best they could with what they had, and they built something out of nothing. Sley…" She shook her head and sighed. "If you could see the Dragon Kingdoms, what the lesser dragons have built over the course of the last five million years, you'd see, they did the same thing you did. Malefor wiped the slate clean, and everyone rebuilt, you and them."

Losing the last of his adrenaline, Sley fully collapsed. With an odd sense of deja vu, Cynder slowly walked over to him, until her claws were beside his throat.

"End it, then," he rasped. "You have defeated me, dragoness. May your future be everything you hoped for when you fought me today."

Slowly, she raised her right forepaw. From the nightmare Sley had forced on her, she knew exactly how to quickly cut his throat. But…she wasn't what he wanted her to be. She wasn't a killer. In that moment, as her amulet flashed, she saw exactly who she was, and lowered her claws.

"I won't kill you," she told him. "I'd be no better than you if I did, and…I'm not a killer." Even as she spoke, she walked over to where the top of his head rested. "But I do need to stop you. You'll abuse this power you've taken on…so…" Taking a breath, she placed her claws on his forehead and closed her eyes. Dragon magic…dragon energy…it was all connected. Kindel's spirit was still there with her, without a body to inhabit, and she herself was badly injured. Her claws melted into the maroon form, as she slowly undid the shell of dragon magic he'd built around himself. All the power of the yellow crystal that had been the source of the dragonflies' lives broke apart, and dissipated; Cynder took just enough to restore Kindel, and herself. She felt grass beneath her forepaws, and opened her eyes. In the center of where the great dragon had lain, there was only the small maroon form of a dragonfly.

"Cynder?" Kindel's voice caught Cynder's attention, and she turned her head to see her restored bondmate, white as a tiny moon.

"How much of that did you see?" Cynder asked curiously.

"All of it," Kindel replied, and she turned and buzzed over to her fallen brother. Cynder followed her, and they both stared at the little bug, who slowly stirred. His eyes opened, and he looked around, then lurched up, wings catching him in the air, his hands outstretched in front of him.

"No…" he whispered. "No…No! You can't do this!"

"You're a dragonfly, Sley," Cynder said calmly; "that's what you're supposed to be."

"Where did the magic go?" he demanded, looking around as though hoping to see the crystal in the clearing of destruction.

"I set it free," Cynder replied. "I don't know where it went…maybe it went to the dragons and bonded dragonflies."

"You'd just let all that power go?" Sley asked disbelievingly.

"Of course," Cynder replied. "No one should have that kind of power."

"What do we do now?" Kindel asked. "The colony is still out there somewhere, without a leader…"

"You go and find them, Kin," Cynder told her bondmate. "They need their queen. Once you have them all together, bring them to the Dragon Realms - it's time the last of the old world went home. And you…" Cynder turned her emerald eyes on Sley. "You, go somewhere far away. Never bother anyone again. You are banished from all dragons and dragonflies."

"You really…mean it," he said softly, his black eyes wide.

"I do," Cynder asserted. "Fly away, Sley, and never return."

"Sister." The maroon dragonfly turned pleading eyes on his white sibling. "Sister, please…"

"Go," Kindel said coldly, and nothing more.

Something behind Sley's wicked eyes crumbled; Cynder watched him fall apart inside. He had no will now, no anger, no drive…he was defeated.

"Actually…" she said softly. "Maybe you can…go…do something, and then return."

"What?" Kindel exclaimed, even as Sley turned his dejected gaze to the black dragoness.

"The eggs, back in the dragonfly city," Cynder said. "The rest of the colony is going to be returning to the Dragon Realms, but there are four eggs in the nursery that are being left behind. If you can save them, and see them hatch, and raise them to be able to fly, all on your own…bring them with you, and come see me. If you can do this one thing right, I'll end your exile."

"Mercy…" he whispered, his little eyes misting over, turning the empty black irises into a shiny dark gray. "You'd show me mercy…"

"Only if you deserve it," Cynder told him. She gestured with her head. "Go."

Without another word, he went.

"It'll take him a long time to get back," Kindel commented to Cynder as the red speck vanished into the trees.

"Yeah, well, that's his problem," Cynder smirked.

"Why even give him the chance, though?" Kindel asked.

Cynder looked at her bondmate. "Because…I think you were right," she told her. "Maybe there is good in everyone, even him. I'm not sure, but…well, it's only fair to give him a chance to prove it."

They were silent for a minute, taking in everything that had just passed.

"You need to go find the colony," Cynder said at last. "And I need to go home, too…the dragons need to know you're coming ahead of time. Besides, I…" She choked a laugh. "I really miss being around things more my size."

Kindel chuckled, but nodded. "Alright," she said. "I'll see you soon, sister."

"See you soon," Cynder said, and they went in opposite directions, to the people they belonged with.


	25. Chapter 25

When at last Cynder saw the seaside town with her physical self again, she was surprised to feel her eyes sting. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed home, for all the discomfort it had contained. No, she'd missed being _herself_ , in a place where she genuinely belonged by her own merits, instead of a place she fit into by lying. A twinge of awkwardness had her landing on the shore, her claws sinking into the warm sand, a sensation she'd all but forgotten. Spyro was here, as were a lot of other dragons, all of whom knew her and had been waiting for her to return…and now, here she was, out of nowhere. She took a steadying breath, then walked into town.

It was the middle of the day, and dragons were going about their business. As expected, the moment she was noticed, her name rang through the air, and a ripple went through all the townsfolk as her return was registered. Questions bombarded her, dragons crowded around her; she did her best to take it all in stride, which mainly meant brushing them off by telling them she had to see Spyro. They understood, sort of, even if they kept asking her things all at once so that she couldn't pick out any single voice to reply to even if she tried.

Someone went running to tell Spyro, and soon, he was running out to meet her; she caught him in her wings, and held him close, in the real world, for the first time in so long.

"You finally came home," he murmured.

"I did," she said, stifling happy tears. "I promised you I would."

"Is everything…?" he asked uncertainly.

"Everything's taken care of," she told him, pressing her forehead against his. "It's all over."

"What about the reason you left?" asked an annoying voice.

Cynder chuckled and turned to Sparx. "Yeah, that's taken care of too," she told him. "It's all taken care of. I found what I was looking for, and then some. Oh!" She turned to Spyro. "Listen, Spyro…I told you a community of dragonflies like the old ones were out there, remember?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Well, they're coming here now," she told him hurriedly. "Kin - I mean, Kindel, their princess - is going to lead them here. She'll know how to get here through our bond. Er, she's my bondmate."

"Princess, eh?" Sparx commented.

"Don't get any ideas," Cynder warned him. "They're not too fond of you."

"What, because I ruined all the dragonflies with the pact?" Sparx asked.

"Well, yeah," Cynder replied.

"Then how are they-?"

"It's a long story," Cynder said quickly. "And it's theirs to tell, really. But, Spyro," she said, turning to her young husband, "the dragons need to know they're coming. Can you do anything?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Spyro said. "Let's talk to the Elders, they'll know how to handle things."

Green and purple eyes met, and for a moment, it was like they were the only two people in existence.

"I love you, Spyro," Cynder said. "After all I've been through, that one thing has never changed."

"I love you too," he said.

An odd surge in her chest made Cynder give a forced "Oh!" Energy from everywhere and nowhere poured into her, filling her further than her little body could contain. In awkward, twisting bulges, she began to grow. All the dragons around her backed up in surprise as Cynder came of age and matured into an adult dragon of old.

"Whoa," Sparx commented when the change was done.

"Um…" Cynder looked down at herself, then around at her surroundings - she was suddenly too big for everything, buildings were too small. It wasn't quite to the same degree as living with the dragonflies had been, but it was ironic enough to make her laugh. The voice that came out of her throat was deeper, richer - it was the same voice that had been hers while she had served Malefor, except that, instead of malice, it was full of kindness and joy. Hearing her happy laughter in that voice felt strange, but in a good way. Then she looked down at Spyro, who was suddenly tiny compared to her, not much bigger than her head.

"Uh…" Spyro stared at her, wide-eyed.

"Oops," she chuckled. "I, uh, I guess I've matured. Well…this is awkward. Don't worry, I'm sure you will soon too."

"You'd better," Sparx noted. "Then you two lovebirds can start making eggs!"

"Sparx!" Spyro exclaimed, glaring at his brother.

"What?" the little yellow bug asked, shrugging. "I'm just saying…"

The adult dragons around them were almost as tall as Cynder, but given that they were bipedal, she was still a couple of times their size. When she raised her long neck, she could easily see over them all. Female dragons of old were slim and sleek, but just as massive as their male counterparts, which gave them the appearance of being bigger. Her ring and amulet had grown with her, as had her iron jewelry (fortunately), so what had happened was a metamorphosis beyond anything anyone around them had ever seen before. Knowing this, Cynder felt uncomfortable.

"Let's go talk to the Elders," she said. "Maybe they'll know what to do."

"Well, if they don't, you'll have to leave again," Sparx teased.

Neither Cynder nor Spyro were amused.

~X~

The walk to the Elders' temple wasn't very long, but Cynder did her best to explain to Spyro and Sparx everything that had happened while she'd been away. By rushing, she got through the final battle with Sley just as they were walking through the field outside the temple area; she did not have time to explain what Sley had taught her about dragon anatomy and physiology. With the few seconds remaining, she simply said,

"Sley taught me everything he knew about dragons, so I know what's happened to me. Dragons mature all at once, usually when they have enough understanding of the world and themselves to make a conscious, mature decision about something central to them. I don't know why you haven't come of age yet, actually…you should soon, you're definitely ready."

"What determines if a decision is maturation-worthy?" Sparx asked.

"Dragon magic," Cynder replied with a chuckle. "No one can predict it. I doubt even the Chronicler understands how it works. But that's the thing about dragon magic, it's unpredictable, and fickle," she finished with a shrug.

Cynder held her head high as she and Spyro met the Dragon Elders, apart from when she had to duck to get in through the mercifully large doorway. Questions of all kinds bombarded them, and they did their best to explain everything. Above all else, Cynder prioritized explaining the coming of the dragonfly colony she'd been living with, and didn't let the discussion stray from that subject for too long.

"So, even the dragonflies are returning," Titan rasped. "I'm so fortunate to have lived this long. You know, I haven't seen my own bondmate in years, apart from during the fight with Malefor. Maybe we should have bondmates of adult dragons return as well."

"That is fascinating, how dragonflies were actually the product of dragon magic," Thomas said ponderously. "There's definitely a great deal to do. And Cynder…" He cast a critical eye over her lean form. "If all dragons of old will be as big as you are, we're going to have to start renovating all the buildings in the Realms."

"What a project!" Magnus said brightly. "We certainly do have a great deal to accomplish, don't we?"

"Then we should get started," Astor said with finality. "No time to waste, especially not with the dragonflies returning!"

With matters now in the claws of responsible adults, Cynder allowed herself to relax, and she knew Spyro was relieved, too. They went outside, the Elders all exiting and leaping into the air to spread word across the lands.

"Well," Cynder said softly, "I guess this is the end of our adventuring. We can settle down now." She turned to look down at the little purple dragon. "Right?"

He nodded. "Right," he confirmed. "Unless something else happens, we can finally get a break."

"The only reason we didn't a while ago is because of you, Cynder," Sparx pointed out.

Instead of being offended, she just laughed. "Yeah, well, it's a good thing I went off on my own, or Sley would have destroyed us all."

"Yeah yeah, Sley this and Sley that," Sparx said dismissively. "Whatever! Let's just enjoy our permanent vacation now."

"Sounds good to me," Spyro said.

~X~

The dragonflies returned the next day, Kindel leading them by following her bond with Cynder. While the masses were meeting for the first time, Kindel buzzed over to Cynder.

"You got big," she commented.

Cynder laughed. "Yeah, I guess I came of age."

"So you won't need me anymore," Kindel said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Cynder chided; "you're my sister. We'll always be friends."

"So, this is the princess, huh?" said an annoying voice as a yellow glow drifted up to Cynder's eye level. "White dragonfly. Awesome."

"And you must be…Sparx the Traitor," Kindel said, looking Sparx over.

"Traitor?!" he exclaimed. "Hey, I was just trying to help Spyro out, okay?"

"Relax," Cynder told him, sensing her partner's emotions, "she's teasing. The past is in the past now."

"That's right," Kindel agreed. "Although…" She looked around. "Is the Purple One here?" she asked Cynder.

"Down there, silly," Cynder said, gesturing to a spot by her right foreleg. "He's still small."

"Well…all the better…" Kindel said softly, drifting down to see the young dragon. When she was at the level of those purple eyes, she went still for a moment except for her wings, her magenta eyes wide. "Oh, Purple One," she said softly. "I…I never thought I'd have the honor of meeting you."

"It's not such an honor, really," Spyro said humbly. "I only did what was right. Please, Kindel, don't think of me as some legendary hero - I'm just a dragon, another person like you and Cynder."

"You know my name!" Kindel squealed.

"Well, yeah, Cynder told me everything," Spyro said, getting uncomfortable. "Oh, um, thank you, by the way, for taking care of her. I'm glad she at least had you out there."

"It was my pleasure!" Kindel said brightly. "We had a lot of fun!"

"Alright, alright," Cynder said amusedly, lowering her head to meet them. "Kindel, you still have a whole colony to lead, I'm sure there are a lot of dragons who are waiting to meet you."

"Oh, right," Kindel said, suddenly flustered. "We'll talk later, right?"

"Of course," Cynder replied, and the white dragonfly buzzed into the crowd.

"She's pretty hot," Sparx commented.

Spyro and Cynder gave him a look, but said nothing.

~X~

The Dragon Realms were hectic for the next few weeks. Between magic and manual labor, homes and other buildings were built and rebuilt, and dragonflies across the land swarmed this way and that, everyone finding a place of their own. With Cynder as an exemplar for the size of the dragons of old, everything was renovated, not just for her, but to prepare for the other great dragons that would be born in the future.

When at last everything was settled, and Spyro and Cynder could move back in together, it was a different world. As Cynder settled into her adult-dragon-sized bed, Spyro hesitated at the door, just as she had done at the beginning.

"What's wrong?" Cynder asked.

Spyro shook his head. "I don't know…I'm just tired, Cynder. If Sley was out there, who knows what else-?"

"Spyro, it's done," Cynder told him firmly. "We can finally rest, live normal lives - well, as normal as our lives can be. Just rest." She got up and walked over to him, dipping down to brush her snout against his forehead. "The fighting is over. It's just you and me."

"I don't want to fight anymore," Spyro said, "but I keep feeling like something else is going to come up - it always does."

"I know," Cynder responded. "I don't want to fight either. But we don't need to anymore, Spyro. There's nothing else that can happen, I'm sure of it. We can relax."

Slowly, uncertainly, Spyro padded into their room.

"Are you sure?" he asked, facing away from her.

"I'm sure," she told him, walking to his side and bumping him with her snout again.

"I want to believe that…"

"Then do!" she urged him. "I know your life has been a series of adventures for years now, but this is it. No more. I promise."

In Spyro's stillness, Cynder finally saw the tension he lived with. Every minute of every day, doubt coiled in his chest, doubt that he'd ever have peace. He was always on edge, ready for another disaster to strike, unable to truly relax at all.

"Malefor's gone," she said softly. "The dragonflies have been found and returned. You and I have power far beyond any other living creature in the whole world - no one else would dare threaten the Dragon Realms, no matter who or what they are, knowing what we're capable of. I know…you don't want the power you have; I don't either. But…the fact that we have it, means that we'll never need to use it again."

He shook his head, still not looking at her.

"Spyro, I promise you, we can relax," Cynder said soothingly. "It's over. Everything's going to be okay now."

For another moment, all was still. Then, Spyro let out a tremendous breath, folding his wings as he finally chose to accept what she was saying and relaxed.

Then, he tensed up again, gasping. His form wavered, twitching and bulging, and just like that, Spyro grew to adult form.

When he turned to her, his whole appearance had transformed: the beard under his chin, the matured horns, the yellow spikes on his shoulders. But his eyes were still the same, those amethyst eyes full of kindness and caring.

"There, you see?" Cynder said, trying to make a joke. "It's over."

"Cynder…"

She understood what that one word meant. He looked different to her, not in appearance, in some other way; in his eyes, she could see that he saw something different, too. They were adults now, with everything that meant. Without another word, they embraced each other with their tremendous wings.


	26. epilogue

After two days, Sley managed to reach the dark forest. The clearing that was the city was still without a canopy, so he flew over the trees to reach it. He felt hollow - his anger and lust for power were both gone, and now he didn't know what else there was for him to feel. With no other purpose, he hurried to the nursery.

By some miracle, the eggs were still alive, though the fetuses were definitely fading. Almost mechanically, he hurried with the mud and heaters, working until each egg was fully restored. They were all safe and sound.

Now, he had nothing to do, except wait, and maybe go out for some old food or some water. Those weapons with crystal fragments, the ones that had been made in preparation for war, crossed his mind for a moment, but as he recalled, even all put together, those specks wouldn't have the power to change anything. No…these eggs were all he had.

But as he gazed into one, and saw the little glowing baby through the translucent shell, curled up with its half-formed eyes closed, blissfully unaware of everything in the world…he wondered if, perhaps, he could find new life in raising these four children.

Maybe there _was_ more in him than anger and hunger for power.

~THE END~


End file.
